What to ski at Alta on Feb 8th & 9th

I had to cancel my Utah trip for April as Southwest canceled the evening flights and I didn't want to "commit" to that trip by buying a ticket on Delta.

I have finalized an Alta trip with some former coworkers. We will ski on Sat Feb 8th and Sun Feb 9th. My wife and daughter won't be joining so I plan to ski bell to bell.

This will be my first time skiing at Alta. I'm wondering if you guys can help me with a progression from greens to harder blues. I plan on mostly sticking to groomed runs.

The forecast looks like we should have pretty good conditions on the groomers (I think).

alta forecast.png
 
All of the groomers at Alta are intermediate friendly IMHO. Alta is of course far more famed for its ungroomed, but local guidance or confident route finding is usually necessary. Ballroom is the obvious place to start with the ungroomed. The farther out the traverse you go, the steeper it gets. You can see everything and drop off the traverse wherever you feel comfortable.

If we had an active admin on this forum, he would make many more suggestions. If you skied a couple of runs with him, he'd figure out where you could get some challenge without getting over your head. Alternatively you could take a lesson and instructors will select terrain accordingly.
 
Tony Crocker":1k18i1f6 said:
All of the groomers at Alta are intermediate friendly IMHO.{/quote]
But some have steeper sections than others, like most anywhere.

Tony Crocker":1k18i1f6 said:
Alta is of course far more famed for its ungroomed, but local guidance or confident route finding is usually necessary. Ballroom is the obvious place to start with the ungroomed. The farther out the traverse you go, the steeper it gets. You can see everything and drop off the traverse wherever you feel comfortable.

If we had an active admin on this forum, he would make many more suggestions. If you skied a couple of runs with him, he'd figure out where you could get some challenge without getting over your head. Alternatively you could take a lesson and instructors will select terrain accordingly.
Good suggestions, especially the last sentence, which is what I was going to suggest and why I bolded it.

As a general plan relative to the OP's question - start over at Albion and ski all the greens. After that, progress to the Sugarloaf lift and ski it's blues, saving Roller Coaster for last as it has two steeper pitches. Devil's Elbow is the obvious blue, but it can get crowded. Note that the steep micro-bowl under the lift for the last 2 towers is not Devil's Elbow but a mild black. After Sugarloaf, do the 2 blue runs plus variants off of the Supreme lift. At some point, move over to the Collins side and hit the 2 main and some subsidiary blues - Main Street and Mambo. Yes, there is a blue way around that avoids the black Upper Main St.

That would be a general plan. There's lots of stuff in between the trails, but as you'll see, difficult to describe. Some of the blacks do get groomed, but not every night. Lower Sunspot would be one of those - but it's a little hard to describe how to get to it other than saying you need to take the Saddle Traverse off of Mambo. Other areas are just designated as blue or black, but without any defined trails, like the aforementioned Ballroom, Backside (aka East Greeley), Devil's Castle, et al.

Reiterating though, the best thing you could do is take a lesson the first day - maybe a morning private lesson - so you can
  • learn your way around
    have your ability assessed and...
    based on that assessment, get appropriate suggestions for exploration on your own
 
Alta has $80 2 hour lessons that start at either 10.15am or 1.30pm weekends. Pretty good value I think.
If you can do the afternoon lesson the first day you'll be able to use the things you learn the next morning and then do another lesson the second afternoon. That will give you the chance of checking out the hill with your mates the first morning. Sticking to Sugarloaf lift the first morning would be a good plan.
 
Something that isn't mentioned very often because it's off the Sunnyside lift is the possibility to get practice in low-angle powder on Vail Ridge (see my 2009 TR).
 
Admin and I will probably be at Alta Feb. 8. I say probably because you never know these days about the LCC road situation.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. I will most likely sign up for the lesson. I thought lessons at Alta would be extremely expensive. But $80 for 2 hours is not bad.

I plan to get my boots dialed in during my week long trip to Mt. Rose in late Feb. I will try ungroomed terrain after that.

I'd love to meet Tony and Admin if their schedule permits.
 
We are flying in Saturday morning and leaving Monday night. Two days at AltaBird and one at Deer Valley. Haven't been to Deer Valley in a long time and my friend wants to go. I am OK with it. Don't know if that will be Sat or Sun. Worried about driving up LCC Sat at 10:30 am. Tony, I haven't seen you since Big Sky in 2013. We still are around.
 
Road to LCC and Alta closed today. From https://www.alta.com/ "Highway 210 will remain closed and Alta Ski Area will not open today". I saw something about avalanche danger due to wetter snow on top of dry snow.

Sat. at 10:30 will be interesting although snowfall supposed to let up Fri. night and Sat. during day. Let us know how it goes. Last Sat. at 10:21 UDOT Cottonwood Canyon tweeted the following:
Attention #LCCroad #SR210 travelers:
@AltaSkiArea parking is now full. Please carpool using #TravelWise or take the @RideUTA #skibus
 
tseeb, I saw that today. High avalanche. Upside down snow pack. Probably should avoid LCC on Saturday late morning. I assume there will not be a problem at Deer Valley.
 
tseeb":1wnt87ba said:
Road to LCC and Alta closed today. From https://www.alta.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; "Highway 210 will remain closed and Alta Ski Area will not open today". I saw something about avalanche danger due to wetter snow on top of dry snow.

Sat. at 10:30 will be interesting although snowfall supposed to let up Fri. night and Sat. during day. Let us know how it goes. Last Sat. at 10:21 UDOT Cottonwood Canyon tweeted the following:
Attention #LCCroad #SR210 travelers:
@AltaSkiArea parking is now full. Please carpool using #TravelWise or take the @RideUTA #skibus

Road closures are a bit of a concern.
I will be there in a couple of weeks armed with a Mountain Collective Pass. If we can't get up LCC we will have to go somewhere else and (gulp) buy day tickets. My heart is set on taking my intermediate friends to Alta but next best option? I'm thinking Snowbasin on a weekday should be ok for crowds? Or would somewhere less popular like Sundance be better?
 
Sbooker":wydoxtku said:
I will be there in a couple of weeks armed with a Mountain Collective Pass. If we can't get up LCC we will have to go somewhere else and (gulp) buy day tickets. My heart is set on taking my intermediate friends to Alta but next best option? I'm thinking Snowbasin on a weekday should be ok for crowds? Or would somewhere less popular like Sundance be better?
I understand how avoiding out-of-pocket day tickets could be a motivational force (I'd do it too); however, Sundance is a really nice non-industrial ski area that you should try -- check out the pix from my two days there in 2016 and 2006. Now that Solitude is an unlimited Ikon resort with reported crowds on weekends and other peak days, it doesn't exert the same magnetic pull on me.

Snowbasin, now on the Epic Pass, is likewise no longer the place for calm powder feasts (like this day in 2009), but I haven't been there in a few years. One would guess that weekdays are fine; however, locals should advise.
 
It looks like tomorrow will be a great day to ski. I'm guessing the groomers will not be busy for me because people will be chasing fresh snow off trail.
 
Based on current conditions in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Alta and @Snowbird
are not planning to open today, Friday, February 7th.

This will be reevaluated at noon as @UDOTcottonwoods
and resort personnel perform avalanche control work.

I'm worried tomorrow could be really bad crowds and traffic-wise.
 
I am not in Utah. I’m with Liz in Florida to help with her mother, more complicated than we expected. We thought I only needed to be here 3 days but it’s been all week. I’m still going home tomorrow and driving with Garry to Mammoth next week.

Given the road situation and LCC being closed two days with new snow, it will be insane on Saturday. If you’re on the Ikon it’s surely better to go to Brighton, Solitude or Deer Valley. These resorts got 13-14 inches in the last 48 hours vs. 27 in LCC. While Sundance is a good way to avoid crowds it’s a bit snow challenged, only 5 inches new from this last storm.
 
Tony Crocker":2aktmr86 said:
Given the road situation and LCC being closed two days with new snow, it will be insane on Saturday. If you’re on the Ikon it’s surely better to go to Brighton, Solitude or Deer Valley. These resorts got 13-14 inches in the last 48 hours vs. 27 in LCC.
Alta is now at 34" and still snowing.
Tomorrow I would expect all parking in both canyons to be full by 11:30, possibly (probably?) earlier.
 
Tony, sorry to hear about Liz's mother. We know all about that. No way LCC on Sat. We will see for Sun. We have Ikon. Hope Mammoth conditions get better for you.
 
jamesdeluxe":fhwoqgd5 said:
Sbooker":fhwoqgd5 said:
I will be there in a couple of weeks armed with a Mountain Collective Pass. If we can't get up LCC we will have to go somewhere else and (gulp) buy day tickets. My heart is set on taking my intermediate friends to Alta but next best option? I'm thinking Snowbasin on a weekday should be ok for crowds? Or would somewhere less popular like Sundance be better?
I understand how avoiding out-of-pocket day tickets could be a motivational force (I'd do it too); however, Sundance is a really nice non-industrial ski area that you should try -- check out the pix from my two days there in 2016 and 2006. Now that Solitude is an unlimited Ikon resort with reported crowds on weekends and other peak days, it doesn't exert the same magnetic pull on me.

Snowbasin, now on the Epic Pass, is likewise no longer the place for calm powder feasts (like this day in 2009), but I haven't been there in a few years. One would guess that weekdays are fine; however, locals should advise.


Nice reports. If the road to Alta is shut it looks like Sundance is the way to go. The scenery looks lovely.
We checked out Snowbasin on a couple of days between Christmas and New Year a few years ago. It was not too crowded and we had a good time. I got the impression it was a perfect hill for intermediates. That was when it was affiliated with Mountain Collective - before Epic. I guess a lot may have changed in relation to crowding. Those lodges - Sun Valley deja vu.
 
Tony Crocker":3k6cxrf2 said:
I am not in Utah. I’m with Liz in Florida to help with her mother, more complicated than we expected. We thought I only needed to be here 3 days but it’s been all week. I’m still going home tomorrow and driving with Garry to Mammoth next week.

Given the road situation and LCC being closed two days with new snow, it will be insane on Saturday. If you’re on the Ikon it’s surely better to go to Brighton, Solitude or Deer Valley. These resorts got 13-14 inches in the last 48 hours vs. 27 in LCC. While Sundance is a good way to avoid crowds it’s a bit snow challenged, only 5 inches new from this last storm.

Speaking of snow challenged - Mammoth must be in need of some too. You've obviously spent plenty of time there when conditions are lean. How do you find it without soft snow? I can't imagine you spending all day on groomers and bump runs.

Sorry about the off topic. I'm keen to here how sierra_cement goes at Alta!
 
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