TR for mostly Alta, April 6-23

[marzNC]

Happy to report that I'm at Alta Lodge. We got to the LCC road just before 8:00am. Needless to say, very little traffic.

Just finished breakfast and heading out to the slopes.

View from my room, April 9, 9:30am

 

[contesstant]

Spent 3 consecutive days skiing Snowbasin last month. Terrain may have evolved. But if you want Taos style bumps, sort of like Tells glade I recommend Beck’s off of Wildcat chair/ridge (or u can get there via Blue grouse terrain park and then traverse Skiers R thru some trees). Becks get u to Porcupine lift. Or take wildcat ridge then Blitz or Centennial all the to the base. All are black but are wide, even pitch, so the bumps remained manageable, not gnarly. My pals liked Becks too. We hit it many times. Never any people there!

Becks is way more fun groomed. Even better on a powder day after groomed because nobody knows how to get there! (Well, until this season.) *Caveat* I still don’t love bumps. I really need to ski my daughter’s Yumis, which are short for me and would probably be a lot more manageable.

Spring skiing has finally arrived in Utah and it has been glorious! I have missed the sunshine this winter.

 

[marzNC]

The time period for opening SR210 shifted to 8pm-10pm. The Alta Shuttle just arrived at Alta Lodge with people coming in and to pick up a few families leaving tonight.

Anyone staying in Alta tonight has to be ready to be in LCC until Friday, April 14. That's the first day this week that day time temps are expected to be on the cool side, meaning under freezing.

 

[Pequenita]

I'm curious what sort of flexibilities are there at the lodges for canceling or adding on days to a reservation to accommodate road closures? I mean, if people can't get in or out, then the number of occupied rooms doesn't change, but what if someone was doing a mid-week arrival and decided today that they'd rather cancel? I wonder if the lodges have been flexible with that or if it's too much of a financial hit.

 

[santacruz skier]

^^^ wondering the same thing…

 

[marzNC]

I'm curious what sort of flexibilities are there at the lodges for canceling or adding on days to a reservation to accommodate road closures? I mean, if people can't get in or out, then the number of occupied rooms doesn't change, but what if someone was doing a mid-week arrival and decided today that they'd rather cancel? I wonder if the lodges have been flexible with that or if it's too much of a financial hit.

What I know is how Alta Lodge works. They are VERY flexible. If you can't make it, you won't be charge for the night(s) you don't use. If you decide to cancel, they will accommodate the request. Preferably by making an alternate booking for another time. If you want to extend, that's no problem at all. This is late season and there are plenty of empty rooms. Note that over 70% of Alta Lodge guests are return guests.

I'm guessing the other four lodges at Alta are also flexible.

 

[marzNC]

I had bought a day ticket for my daughter for April 8. We opted not to drive up early in the morning to ski Alta because we would've had to stay until 7pm before driving down canyon. Alta Lift Co. refunded the money, no questions asked.

 

[marzNC]

We skied from about 10:00 to 3:30 today. Got pretty warm by 2:00. Glad I have Phantom Glide on my skis. Also on my daughter's skis. Bill too.

I think there might have been 100 cars in the Wildcat parking lot today, April 9. Few people took the risk of getting stuck at Alta to drive up for some spring skiing.

I used Ikon F&F to get a day ticket for my daughter. Will do that each day she skis. Can get either Alta only or Alta/Snowbird although with Mineral Basin closed there is no point to pay more for a combo ticket.

A couple of pics at the top of Sugarloaf, April 9

 

[marzNC]

Here's an example of how what can be created during a wet slide. This was on Ballroom where a slide went far down after crossing the traverse. The snow softened in the afternoon when mid-mountain temps were in the high 40s. So there were a few people skiing Ballroom. I checked it out about 3:30pm as I was making my way back to the base of Collins to return to Alta Lodge.

 

[MissySki]

Looked so benign until the last picture for perspective!

 

[KayOss]

Thanks for the photo perspective. Slide debris will definitely trip you up!

 

[skinnyfootskis]

We skied from about 10:00 to 3:30 today. Got pretty warm by 2:00. Glad I have Phantom Glide on my skis. Also on my daughter's skis. Bill too.

I think there might have been 100 cars in the Wildcat parking lot today, April 9. Few people took the risk of getting stuck at Alta to drive up for some spring skiing.

I used Ikon F&F to get a day ticket for my daughter. Will do that each day she skis. Can get either Alta only or Alta/Snowbird although with Mineral Basin closed there is no point to pay more for a combo ticket.

A couple of pics at the top of Sugarloaf, April 9
View attachment 21074View attachment 21075

Amazing

 

[marzNC]

Looked so benign until the last picture for perspective!

There are what I think of as "snow boulders" all over the place. We could see the deep tracks made by a few that were just under the Supreme lift as you reach the edge of Supreme Bowl on Sunday. Someone said they looked like giant cinnamon rolls.

 

[marzNC]

Here's what the door to/from the Alta Lodge locker room looks like. In late season usually only have a slight uphill section. Now there are huge steps. I use my poles to help walk up when in ski boots.

Imagine how much work had to be done to shovel out the snow in front of the door after the Interlodge periods that happened during the big snowstorms.

 

[marzNC]

For those unfamiliar with how the five private lodges in the Town of Alta work, the rates include breakfast and dinner. There are no restaurants other than the dining rooms of the lodges. That means the guests who made it up to their lodge don't really need to worry about food. Except for Peruvian, the lodges are open to the public for lunch. Plus there are a few on-mountain food options (also independent businesses).

Alta Lodge also has Tea Time 3:30-5:00. There is hot tea and lemonade, plus cookies and/or sweet bread such as banana bread.

The Sitzmark Club inside Alta Lodge is a classic place for aprés ski drinks and conversation. My friends who took Alta Shuttle during the 8pm-10pm travel window made it just in time to get a much needed drink. They took an early morning flight and had had a long day because the road closed at 9am. They rented a car and had a chance to do a little skiing at Snowbasin since they have Ikon.

 

[marzNC]

Since going up to Alta on Sat, April 8, didn't make sense because we would've had to stay in LCC until 7pm, we went to Park City instead. A key reason was that my daughter's friend who was supposed to be at Alta Lodge was staying in Park City instead. I also made a difference that Bill has an Epic pass and still had two Buddy Passes. I'm buying day tickets for my daughter any way, so paying for a day ticket for myself for one day wasn't too unreasonable. Plus I've never skied Park City.

Fair to say that PC has a lot more snow than usual for early April. Going off-piste in the morning was nota good idea because everything was frozen solid. The groomers were fun and not crowded at all. It got too warm after about 1:30.

The bonus was that the Park City pond skim started at noon. I had a good time watching for an hour or so. It was the first time I've seen a pond skim in person. I moved around and watched from different places. There were at least 80 entries. It was 50 degrees. The announcer was very good.

Bottom line is that Park City is huge, so we only touched on a few areas. Did get over to Canyons riding the gondola that crosses between the two formerly separate resorts. But couldn't get back at 2:30 because the gondola closed early, perhaps because of the threat of wet slides. We had to take lifts to get to the Canyons base, then take the Cabriolet to the public bus stop. Got a little confusing making sure we got on the 101 Inbound that stops at the Park City parking lot.

Overall, as a "tourist ski day" it worked out well. The trail map makes a lot more sense having skied a few of the areas.

 

[marzNC]

Since going up to Alta on Sat, April 8, didn't make sense because we would've had to stay in LCC until 7pm, . . .

Found out that Collins ran until 5:30 on April 8. So people doing day trips who kept skiing didn't have to wait too long before starting the long drive down. I heard from a local Alta pass holder that it took 3 hours to make it to the bottom of LCC.

I had bought an online day ticket for my daughter. Also paid for parking. I cancelled the parking reservation online after we decided to go to Park City. The day ticket was refunded on April 9.

 

[marzNC]

There were far fewer people out skiing today, April 11, than yesterday. I would guess some people who are buying day tickets decided not to bother for a half-day. The temperature never got below 40 at the base last night. The snow was too soft by 1:30 in most places, if not sooner for intermediates.

Skiing in the morning off Sunnyside was good fun. Took a little while for even the groomers to soften off Sugarloaf. There was a strong wind coming up and over Mineral Basin. Once it warmed up, the off-piste conditions went to mashed potatoes very quickly.

I confirmed with a pair of ski patrollers who brought down the last of the gear that's used for the Supreme area that Supreme is done for the season.

Yesterday afternoon there was a crew clearing snow off the roof of Alf's (mid-mountain, base of Sugarloaf and Supreme)


Alf's on April 11, food service available with a limited menu, full-time staff sleep in Alta, part-time staff are done for the season, Alta employees eat at Alf's


Snow melting fast off the roof of Alta Lodge

 

[marzNC]

Alta opted to run Collins and Sunnyside on Wed, April 12. The Sugarloaf terrain was open for people who wanted to ski down from the top of Collins and then take the transfer tow back to the Wildcat base or their lodge. The terrain off the High T, Saddle, and Ballroom traverses were all closed.

The groomers were great on Sunnyside first thing in the morning, and still mostly good on the Sugarloaf groomers just before lunch time. It stayed well over freezing all night. Alf's was open 10am-3pm. Took a little while for the groomers on the Collins side to soften, per usual. Daytime temps were in the 40s with cloud cover increasing in the afternoon. The wind was gusty and felt cool, so needed to wear a slightly heavier base layer under shell jackets and shell pants.

Was fun to ski down from the top of Collins to the Albion base on the blue groomer non-stop with no one else around at 9:45am. By 11:45 the lower section near Alf's and Homerun (green near Sunnyside) was getting pretty soft.

In the afternoon, it was better to load Collins at mid-mountain. Since there were so few people skiing, an empty chair came along very quickly. (Usual process is that every 10th chair is left empty by the liftie at the base.). The groomers on the upper mountain were soft and pretty fun. Not really that pushed around since so few people were skiing today. Wasn't really sticky near the base, but had to be careful. I went in around 3:00.

The Alta Lodge tow and the Rustler chairlift were running today. At least when the liftie was around. Haven't seen anyone hiking up to the Snowpine at all, so perhaps people staying there are allowed to walk on the road from the Albion base. Fair to say that all the lodges have very few guests. They are usually not that busy during the last couple weeks of the season even without road closure issues.

Using a snowblower to take snow off the roof of Albion Grill


Much less snow on the roof of Alta Lodge as of April 12 after a few days of warm temps

 

[skinnyfootskis]

Here's what the door to/from the Alta Lodge locker room looks like. In late season usually only have a slight uphill section. Now there are huge steps. I use my poles to help walk up when in ski boots.

Imagine how much work had to be done to shovel out the snow in front of the door after the Interlodge periods that happened during the big snowstorms.

View attachment 21087View attachment 21088

Just..wow…..