Alta feels underdeveloped compared to Snowbird next door, which appears to have invested more in retail, bars and hotels than Alta. Similarly, the shopping options are very limited with just a handful of retail places and a small grocery outlet. Salt Lake City is a town of around 2 million, meaning you will find all the usual amenities of a capital city during the season. If you want nightlife, you will need to go back to Salt Lake City (where most employees live in any case). People at Alta are here to ski, not party. There are just a few restaurants to choose from at night, mostly in the lodges, while the après-ski is non-existent save for a quiet drink in one of the lodge bars. Locals will argue vehemently that snowboarders wreck the snow and the trails, but this is not really borne out by the evidence (as you will no doubt find out once you ski both Alta and Snowbird over the season). There is frankly no discernible benefit in excluding snowboarders, as the snow quality is retained equally as well as at Snowbird (next door), where snowboarders are allowed. Unfortunately, the skier-only vibe gives the resort a slightly exclusionary and elitist feel. Being skiers only, the crowd is also noticeably older and greyer, although Alta’s cool terrain also helps to bring in a lot of younger skiers too. See Resort Vibeīeing skiers only, Alta is almost unique in stubbornly clutching to the past. This handy bus also allows you to get to Solitude and Brighton during the season for variety on a day off. A one way fare is $4.50 if you don’t have a complimentary ticket. The UTA bus starts running in early December and ends in early April each year. This bus provides a service to and from Salta Lake City and the resorts of Alta, Brighton, Snowbird, and Solitude.
ALTA SKI RESORT FREE
Seasonal workers at Alta get a free Utah Transit Authority (UTA) ski bus pass as part of the employment package. To get to work, many staff car-pool and ride-share if they don’t have their own cars. It’s not unusual to have traffic backed all the way down the canyon on a powder day, or a good weekend day.
However, the traffic is getting worse and worse to get up the canyon. The start of the road up the canyon literally joins onto a suburb of Salt Lake City, so it’s incredibly closer. As the crow flies, Brighton Ski Resort and Solitude Ski Resort are just a mile over the ridge, though there is no road to connect them (as you take up different roads through the canyons from Salt Lake City).Īlta is a 40-minute drive from downtown Salt Lake City taking State Route 210 out of Salt Lake City. Alta is situated right next to Snowbird, which lies just over the Baldy Ridge. Location and Getting ThereĪlta is found in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah, at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Alta is connected to Snowbird Ski Resort via the Sugarloaf chair or a free bus, meaning the easily accessibly terrain available on your days off work effectively doubles. This region of the world receives close to the monstrous Japanese levels of snow, except that here you also get steeps and chutes in-bound to enjoy the powder, something that Japan does not have. While this is bad news for the snowboarding half of you, for seasonal workers who ski, Alta is a cool, if slightly exclusionary, resort. Alta is one of the last three resorts in the world to be skiers only (the others being Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont).
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