Diva West 2025, Alta Snowbird: Trip Report and Photos

[marzNC]

Spent the morning off Supreme with @liquidfeet, then met up with @diymom at Alf's at 11:00 per usual. We had fun conversations with a few of the Wild Olde Bunch. Oldest we met is 91. The 70-something couple were from New York. I met a member who sat at the round table who is 82. He was surprised there weren't more around given the good conditions and great weather.

After lunch at Alta Lodge, I took @liquidfeet up Collins and Sugarloaf for her first views from those lifts.

 

[RachelV]

Was talking to a few people in the tram line this morning about how one of Snowbird's new tram cabins was dropped during installation and had to be replaced. Here's the post on LiftBlog, with a photo in a tweet about halfway down the article. Looks like it happened in May 2022.

New Snowbird Tram Cabin Damaged During Installation

One of the new cabins being installed on Snowbird’s Aerial Tram fell Saturday during installation, causing significant damage. Thankfully the incident occurred in a closed construction area a…

liftblog.com

 

[RachelV]

Here's most of the crew from Snowbird today at the Tram Club for apres.

Going around the table from the bottom left:
@RachelV, @skivet, @CarverJill, @Sparky, @Zard, @ride_ski, Mr ride_ski, @MissySki, @tinymoose, Mr tinymoose, @Ton ton, @bawc

 

[diymom]

I had the honour of making a little small talk outside the locker room at Albion with the legendary Junior Bounous this morning. He was waiting for someone to bring his skis to him. @marzNC also had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his career as an instructor.

He is 99 years old.

 

[CarverJill]

I was SO excited for the tunnel at Snowbird!
That’s @skivet behind me and @tinymoose, Barbara, and @MissySki with Mr Tiny moose with us heading in.

 

[CarverJill]

I didn’t tag @bawc correctly above

 

[marzNC]

The 2022-23 season was a much better winter in terms of snow by late January than this season. That was the nutty spring with too much snow and too much heat in the spring, so the canyon road was closed due to major wet slides quite a bit for several weeks. Can do comparisons to the last decade of seasons for Alta on the Alta website.

Last season had a long dry spell towards the start of the winter as well. There was plenty of snow by mid-February 2024. When I was skiing Alta in April 2024, people were happy there was about 600 inches of snow, instead of 800+ inches.

2024-25 compared to 2022-23


2024-25 compared to 2023-24

 

[marzNC]

I had the honour of making a little small talk outside the locker room at Albion with the legendary Junior Bounous this morning. He was waiting for someone to bring his skis to him. @marzNC also had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his career as an instructor.

He is 99 years old.

I got the biography of Junior Bounous last spring when I was at Alta. It's written by a granddaughter. The story is fascinating. He and his wife maintained a family farm at the same time he was helping to build the ski industry at more than one mountain. He started with Alf Engen at Alta, then built up the Snowbird ski school.

One of the questions I asked was "What age did you retire from teaching?" His answer was "99. I didn't want to get paid to ski any more" or something like that. He's wearing PSIA pins. One is for 70 years of membership.

Alta skiing is free for Over 80 folks. Snowbird doesn't have free skiing for any seniors. A couple from Alyeska told us that expect for Alta, none of the Utah resorts have free skiing for 80+.

The conversations in the Albion locker room have been quite fun.

 

[contesstant]

I had the honour of making a little small talk outside the locker room at Albion with the legendary Junior Bounous this morning. He was waiting for someone to bring his skis to him. @marzNC also had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his career as an instructor.

He is 99 years old.

What an honor. He is a treasure in the Utah ski world.

 

[MissySki]

@Ton ton , @bawc , @ride_ski , @CarverJill , @tinymoose , @MissySki , @RachelV , @Sparky , @skivet


Snowbird tunnel


Shuttle to Snowbird from GMD




Mineral Basin


@Sparky skiing down

 

[Christineszy]

I was chatting with @MissySki about this ad campaign about Snowbird - wish there had been more snow today, but it’s true, the terrain is steep there!!

Snowbird★☆☆☆☆ - Struck

We let the haters write the campaign for Snowbird's extreme terrain. And it hit the right target - thrill-seekers and adventure skiers.

www.struck.com

I would LOVE to come back to Snowbird when there’s more snow on the mountain, it would be truly incredible!

Fingers crossed there will be some new snow in the next couple of weeks when I get there. Bummed I couldn't be there with you all this time! Have a great week!

 

[Christineszy]

I was SO excited for the tunnel at Snowbird!
That’s @skivet behind me and @tinymoose, Barbara, and @MissySki with Mr Tiny moose withView attachment 24224 us heading in.
View attachment 24223

That is awesome! I had no idea that they had a Tunnel!!!

 

[RachelV]

Amazing group shot by the Alta photographer Tyler Struss this morning.


Back row: Mr IceHeeler, @IceHeeler, @tinymoose, @skivet, @RachelV, Mr. dloveski, friend of Matro, @Olesya Chornoguz, @Ton ton, @ride_ski, @dloveski, @MissySki
Front row: friend of dloveski, @Marigee, @bawc, @Matro, @kapowder

Huge shoutout to @kapowder for getting the Alta photographer to take some pics and get us featured as the Photo of the Day! Screenshot below, and here's the link: https://www.alta.com/photo-of-the-day

 

[Jenny]

Awesome!

 

[Matro]

And Barbara and Donna

 

[Mary Brosnan]

Amazing group shot by the Alta photographer Tyler Struss this morning.

View attachment 24233
Back row: Mr IceHeeler, @IceHeeler, @tinymoose, @skivet, @RachelV, Mr. dloveski, friend of Matro, @Olesya Chornoguz, @Ton ton, @ride_ski, @dloveski, @MissySki
Front row: friend of dloveski, @Marigee, @bawc, @Matro, @kapowder

Huge shoutout to @kapowder for getting the Alta photographer to take some pics and get us featured as the Photo of the Day! Screenshot below, and here's the link: https://www.alta.com/photo-of-the-day

View attachment 24234

I love this!

 

[diymom]

Someone was having fun playing

 

[marzNC]

Huge shoutout to @kapowder for getting the Alta photographer to take some pics and get us featured as the Photo of the Day! Screenshot below, and here's the link: https://www.alta.com/photo-of-the-day

Happened to see a couple of the long time owners/managers at Alta Lodge at lunch on Wednesday. They noticed the Photo of the Day with Divas.

If anyone is wondering why I didn't stay at Alta Lodge, when I asked about the week of Diva West at the end of my stay in April 2024, it was already all booked up with Advanced Reservations. Plus I knew I wanted to ski elsewhere to start with. Staying lower in Sandy also meant an easier altitude adjustment. I'm headed to Taos next week.

It was great to meet new Divas for the first time! While we didn't get a lot of fresh snow, there is much to be said for blue skies and no lift lines midweek.

 

[marzNC]

Someone was having fun playing

Looks like Farmer Dave was out. The photo and description in Alf's is worth a look.

 

[MissySki]

Hike up to Devil’s Castle…. Though hike is a bit of a misnomer as you didn’t actually need to even take your skis off.


Devil’s Castle


Outdoor apres’ view from GMD