Alta March 18th

I waited a respectful two days for Admin's version of Alta from Sunday. Here's mine:
Had to do some work on Saturday and my green-blue skiing parents were keen on "having skied Alta" so I sent them that way. My expectations were low as I think of Alta being meaningful to the traverse-seeking expert skiers that populate this forum. Turns out, they really liked it. So on Sunday we headed out together.
First to greet us on the way over were other cars, lined up.

I recalled Admin having mentioned a way around and it was kinda obvious for the next trip.
We passed the Wildcat entrance and saw big lines on the lift. No problem, heading up to Albion. I click in to get on Sunnyside and... you gotta be kidding me! The line was longer than anything I've seen in Utah, except for PCMR on Christmas Day. Okay, maybe that infamous Strawberry line from two months ago but at least that was a lean line and moved fast. This thing was like a toilet paper sale in Soviet Russia. From all the way back I catch a glimpse of Bobby Danger up front so I can't be doing anything too wrong. After 30+ minutes we get on. I am angling to drop off my parents and head over to Catherine's Area from what I've read on here. Next stop Sugarloaf. You gotta be kidding me, again! Almost the same line as below. I am at the top of Sugarloaf maybe an hour after clicking in and have yet to ski. Along the way, I gather that there is some sort of a power problem and many/most lifts are not running. Meanwhile, I am thinking, "quality over quantity" -- yeah right: it's not like quantity is an option today. Everybody and their uncle is on Sugarloaf so quality ain't so promising either.
After a couple of runs I take EBT to head to whiter pastures and somewhere below High Traverse, I have my epiphany. It's deep like the best days and it's barely tracked and it's gooood. Could get used to this...
I spent the rest of the day riding Wildcat (Collins was closed). Heard rumors of Supreme opening and Sugarloaf on hold (how does that even work if you're not at Supreme already?) but stayed with Wildcat and its cozy loveseats. My impressions along the way (this is only my second day ever at Alta):
The people are very nice and low-key unlike at Snowbird. I rode up twice with this lawyer chick from Oregon and even she was nice.
The food is blah. A hot soup is always nice (Collins Grill) but SYSCO soup at 9 bucks... whatever. EDIT: This was at the second floor cafeteria, NOT the sit-down place upstairs. When the cashier rung up a dollar for my thin slice of Wonderbread I said I no longer wanted it. Chatted with a guy from Oregon over lunch. He comes here often. He thinks the food is typical ski-area ripoff. I like him already. Are today's closures an outlier? He shakes his head noncommittally. I ask him if he's on this forum. Who knows, maybe I've run into Schubwa. Hasn't heard of it but he'll give it a try tonight. I feel like a Mormon missionary.
The skiing was good. Not write-home good but given the circumstances and my inexperience at Alta, promising. I can see how the layout lends itself to a large number of lines. My parents also had a good time, two days in a row.
Added bonus: no California driver on the way down LCC and traffic flowed smoothly.

Keep coming..it gets better as you get to know the place...

Yeah sunday was an unusual shitshow. Saved a lot of stuff for Monday though and it was DEEP....

You are correct..if you weren't already over at Supreme you were SOL. They just couldnt seem to get the lifts right. Had a few nice runs in Wildcat before it got really busy then it was over to sugarloaf and doing the "round thew world" boy the snow was good off the high T.

As for the food. I suggest next time maybe you try Watsons or even go to the Rustler lodge for a nice sit down lunch. The Rustler is basically about $10 more expensive including tip usually than just eating at Gold Miners and the food is WAY better. Being a Snowbasin regular Evren you're spoiled with the good eats they provide. That is NOT the ordinary.

Anyway...all in all good day, just wish all the lines were shorter.

Evren":2qejrge0 said:

I waited a respectful two days for Admin's version of Alta from Sunday.

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Yeah, I didn't get to it. I'm presently in SoCal on a business trip. I'll add some photos to this topic (action and otherwise) once I get back, for they're still in my camera at home.

As Skidog mentioned, Sunday's junk show was an order of magnitude larger than normal. But there was a reason for that outside of Alta's control. The electric power situation in LCC is somewhat unusual in that the trunk line that feeds Snowbird comes from the Salt Lake Valley, while the one that supplies Alta comes from Park City via Brighton and Twin Lakes Pass. Rocky Mountain Power was screwing around with Alta's line on Sunday morning and that caused some power surges that damaged several of Alta's lifts, including Collins. Alta got their stuff fixed but they were still hampered by disruptions in the supply from RMP. The reason that Sugarloaf went down again was that RMP was still screwing with something and they were afraid that it would cause a surge that would take the lift down again, and they didn't want that to happen with a full load of people on the chair.

Sunday was easily the most aggravating, frustrating day that I've ever spent at Alta. The situation was so bad that Crocker actually called RMP on Monday morning to find out what they planned to do that day before committing to Alta.

And Evren, Skidog's right. For lunch the best bang for your buck at Alta is GMD. If you'd like food that's a cut above and only slightly pricier than eating at Alf's, consider taking the Rustler Lodge chair midway down the rope tow and having a sit-down meal there. The food is quite good and you get to enjoy white tablecloth service quite reasonably priced, with an added benefit that it's never crowded. Another sit-down option is the fine dining experience at Collins Grill, upstairs on the third floor of Watson Shelter.

Not unprecedented, it happened before on April 2, 2010: http://www.allvoices.com/news/5531092-p ... ghton-alta

Smoothly functioning powder days at Alta are not a guaranteed experience. Numerous reasonable decisions were made, most of them turned out to be wrong in retrospect.

Amy, Skidog and BobbyD arrived just as Wildcat opened, thus took 2 runs there. Admin and I arrived a few minutes later ~9:20, by which time both Collins and Wildcat lines were long: thus reasonable to wait out Collins particularly since half the Collins line left and we advanced to about the 5th row. We were not told that the Collins problem was that serious until ~10:40, so we left to hit the other side. As Evren noted, the Sunnyside line was 30+ minutes. Sugarloaf's line was only 10 minutes but open terrain was extremely constrained (upper half was basically one groomer, lower half completely hammered) so we went in to Alf's for lunch (this at ~12:15 after making ONE run since we arrived 3 hours before), hoping SOMETHING ELSE would open when we came out.

After lunch they were fooling around with Cecret so we knew Supreme would open, but more importantly the EBT had opened, allowing access to a vast amount of terrain via the High T that could keep us happy the rest of the day, albeit by very circuitous means. We skied Garbage Chute to some North Rustler trees (where admin took pictures), all nearly pristine. Adam noted that the High T and the direct lines below it also had minimal traffic so we thought we were in for a low quantity but very high quality afternoon.

Unfortunately by the time we returned to Sugarloaf it had closed. We went to Supreme, saw a ~20 minute line there and bailed out. Since neither Supreme Bowl nor Catherine's were open it would have been nearly as constrained/hammered as Sugarloaf anyway. We finished up on Wildcat with a short condo run and a quite nice Keyhole run. On the last Wildcat ride the lift stopped for 10 minutes, during which time we noticed a few people on the High T :evil: and we were delayed getting off the lift until 3:37. Fortunately Alta patrol was sympathetic and let us into Keyhole after its usual 3:30 closing. Total 7,800 vertical, 3K of powder. Adam had a Snowbird upgrade (downgrade would be perhaps a more accurate description on this particular day) from his 3 out of 4 pass bought at Iron Blosam and so took an extra run on Peruvian, just making it to that lift before 4PM.

The key decision was at 10:30. Amy, Skidog and BobbyD contemplated leaving for Snowbird during their second Wildcat run, and Adam and I would probably have followed them. They elected to stay at Alta, though Skidog and BobbyD went home after the Garbage/North Rustler run ~1:45PM.

kingslug":1z0penpm said:

Keep coming..it gets better as you get to know the place...

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I'll have to. Sunday was a $141 lift ticket for me: Alta Gold Card $99 + day ticket $42. Need to bring down that average!

On the food issue: I don't intend to sound like a foodie; it's just that when you make a decision for season passes, you are also deciding where you will be having many many lunches over the next 5 months. And I'd like there to be a nutritious, non-gouging option. Not fancy but pleasant, a little something to look forward to. Neither prices nor quality would matter as much for a short visit. Skidog, it's not just Snowbasin: it's Snowbasin and Sundance followed by this year at Deer Valley. If you have had breakfast at Foundry Grill early on a powder day, you'll know how it can put you over the top, mood-wise. Or even a simple lunch by the fire at cozy Bearclaw Cabin (both at Sundance).

I did recall a topic from pre-season where Admin and Marc_C had gone into detail about the options at Alta. That's why I headed to Watson Shelter, remembering that location but not the establishment (made an edit above to clarify that apparently I was not at Collins Grill). Anyway, good info both here and there. I just have to keep trying.

Admin":1z0penpm said:

The situation was so bad that Crocker actually called RMP on Monday morning to find out what they planned to do that day before committing to Alta.

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:lol: I can totally see that.

Tony Crocker":1z0penpm said:

On the last Wildcat ride the lift stopped for 10 minutes, during which time we noticed a few people on the High T and we were delayed getting off the lift until 3:37.

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I must have left Wildcat minutes earlier -- whew. That may have been the proverbial straw-on-camel's-back after everything else that morning.

Evren":3nep3z88 said:

On the food issue: I don't intend to sound like a foodie; it's just that when you make a decision for season passes, you are also deciding where you will be having many many lunches over the next 5 months. And I'd like there to be a nutritious, non-gouging option.

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If the food sucks and is expensive, how about bringing your own?

Deer Valley, Snowbasin and Sundance have the best on-mountain food overall in Utah, and would rate high anywhere in North America. In my case convenience is also a factor: I'm there to ski not spend a lot of wasted time particularly if the snow is good. That's why I ate at Albion on Monday. This is a big beef of mine at Snowbird. Mid-Gad is typical overpriced on-mountain fare, but waiting in a 15 minute line to get served that food is just unacceptable to me. Alta has more convenient options for lunch than Snowbird. And if it's a more leisurely day like the spring conditions on March 11 the Rustler Lodge is a great call for a nicer meal.

jamesdeluxe":1d31m05j said:

Evren":1d31m05j said:

On the food issue: I don't intend to sound like a foodie; it's just that when you make a decision for season passes, you are also deciding where you will be having many many lunches over the next 5 months. And I'd like there to be a nutritious, non-gouging option.

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If the food sucks and is expensive, how about bringing your own?

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Not even necessarily a full lunch - maybe something to supplement a purchased item to keep costs down.
There's also the matter of what you select. You can buy a $9 bowl of food service soup (which actually is decent soup, but pricy for what it is), or you can get a $9.75 garlic burger made to order and even ask for a grilled green chilli pepper with it. Another key thing to remember is that the ski area does not own any of the food operations - they are individually owned, hence differ in price, selection, and to a lesser extent, quality.

jamesdeluxe":2m6vvrpy said:

If the food sucks and is expensive, how about bringing your own?

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Fair enough. It's just that I have enough trouble making it out at a reasonable hour, without making sandwiches. And ice-cold sandwiches (assuming you carry them in your backpack) are not too appetizing on a snowy day. I know of at least one family who made that a habit... and living very comfortably in retirement with the money they saved(!)

Protein bars (Promax are my new favorites for not freezing and providing a ton of protein), large hunks of cheese, salami, nuts. It's healthier, and you can eat them on the lift!

If I were to eat lunch in a cafeteria every day, it'd cost me at least $10/day, so multiplied by ~60 days, that's $600! That's more than I spend on everything else combined to go skiing in a given year (outside of gear purchases).

I've lived on Cliff Bars. although they do suck frozen..sometimes I hate to stop for lunch..unless I'm shot and need a rest...the Wasatch is a good sandwich...

kingslug":3e2kbu9m said:

...the Wasatch is a good sandwich...

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Just to clarify for others..... the Wasatch is a roast beef with green chilli sandwich served only at Alf's Restaurant at Alta.

"On the food issue: I don't intend to sound like a foodie; it's just that when you make a decision for season passes, you are also deciding where you will be having many many lunches over the next 5 months. "


Or you could pack

I guess I should have kept reading. Most people have the right idea

Plus, it sounds like you would've had time to just eat in the line Sunday :lol:

"On the food issue: I don't intend to sound like a foodie; it's just that when you make a decision for season passes, you are also deciding where you will be having many many lunches over the next 5 months. "

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Mammoth lets season passholders purchase pass cash that discounts food 20%. Mammoth's food is about average in quality but unlike Snowbird they are equipped to handle volume so you can get in and out of there reasonably fast if you want.

kingslug":21jzzsp3 said:

I've lived on Cliff Bars. although they do suck frozen..sometimes I hate to stop for lunch..

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+1

Especially given the amount of time I get to ski now with a toddler at home. I'm definitely there to ski and ski hard as long as possible with my limited time... Your mileage may vary however.

And just to add to the foodie theme..I had lunch with a porcupine once at The Mid Gad at snowbird...carefully.....

kingslug":1q64jl6e said:

I had lunch with a porcupine once at The Mid Gad at snowbird...carefully.....

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Did she call afterwards?

Tony Crocker":3juoa3to said:

this at ~12:15 after making ONE run since we arrived 3 hours before

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I was bummed that I didn't move my flight to Sunday night when I saw both Alta and Snowbird reported 15" new the morning after I left. I would have been more bummed if I had moved my flight and paid $130-220 plus 15% service to sleep in a dorm (including dinner and breakfast) at one of Alta's lodges (plus a lift ticket) and faced all that.