Huge props to the Alta snowmaking and grooming crew! Alta opened the 2017/18 season with better than expected snow and excellent skiing. Skiers enjoyed top-to-bottom skiing thanks to a delayed opening day and cold enough temperatures to make snow that was actually fun to ski on.
Alta celebrates their 80th anniversary this year. Opening day started off well enough despite the lack of natural snowfall. Two lifts, Collins and Sugarloaf, were in operation servicing two runs. That may not sound like much but both runs offered skiers a lot of vertical.
And the snow on those runs was much better than it deserved to be. Overall the skiing was soft and creamy with just a few icy spots in high-traffic zones. Lift crews did a few things to alleviate overcrowing – Collins loaded every other chair, while Sugarloaf treated the quad as a double. This creative crowd control spread out skiers so they weren’t jammed together on narrow, single runs.
Anyone who stayed away in fear of icy white lines of death missed out. The weather was gorgeous (though I would have preferred a blizzard) and the mountain views were missed all summer. It felt great to ski once again and feel those quads burn.
A storm is on our doorsteps. Hopefully we will squeeze out some good snow totals and add to the man-made base Alta crews worked so hard to create.
Head over to Alta.com for more on opening day, to purchase tickets, and stay updated on 80th anniversary events.