Alta Ski Resort in Utah is known globally for being one of the snowiest ski resorts in not only the region but also North America. Its position deep in Little Cottonwood Canyon surrounded by the soaring peaks of the Wasatch Mountains means that any storm cycle that comes across the flat plains and picks up all its moisture from the great Salt Lake will get get stuck in the mountains and then just deposit light powdery snow non stop.Last week an extreme Interlodge event was declared at both Alta and Snowbird due to the huge amount of snowfall coming down hard and fast. Interlodge is only called when there is extreme risk of natural avalanches which could hit the small ski resort town as its at the base of a large valley.Now that the storms have cleared and the incredible mountain ops team have been able to get out there and sort of the resort we are seeing reports that this storm left Alta ski resort with over 100” (2.5m) of fresh snow in less than 7 days. You can see below that their fresh snowfall has gone from 230” to 335” in a matter of 9 days.
Whilst 60 hours being locked inside your accommodation might not sound too pleasing (however throughout 2020 alot of us have become used to it) for those who were already up the canyon this meant non stop powder turns as the roads were still blocked and no one else from Salt Lake City could come up to the mountain. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alta Ski Area (@altaskiarea) For those lucky locals and resort staff the mountain became a private resort once safe and some of the scenes we have seen taking place on instagram have us extremely jealous. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alta Ski Area (@altaskiarea) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Andrew Cassano (@andrew.cassano) View this post on Instagram A post shared by nickslater96 (@nickslater968) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shasheen Shah (@shasheen) View fullsize
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About the author
Michael Fulton
Melbourne-based skier and snowboarder with 50+ resorts across 5 continents. Specialises in Australian resorts and international resort comparisons.
