Alta, Utah — It hasn’t been an ideal start to the season for one of North America’s powder meccas. A good November allowed Alta to get things going on its planned opening day, but things have been more bare lately.
This week, Alta received its first snowfall in December. It’s not a good sign, as it shows that their snowpack is likely struggling. It has even led to Alta publically pleading on social media to tell skiers to slow it down.
A similar sentiment was shared with employees earlier this week. In a letter shared anonymously to us by an employee up in the Town of Alta, Alta General Manager Mike Maughan sent a letter to businesses in the town of Alta regarding their struggles so far this season. A lack of natural snowpack means that most are skiing on Alta’s groomed runs. Alta received a decent amount of snow in the past 24 hours, and more is expected this weekend, but it’s not expected that there will be a monumental snowfall soon that will break them out of this slump.
He mentions that guests have complained that skiers have been going too fast while skiing past them. However, based on the letter, it’s unclear whether this conduct was from employees or guests. This led to Maughan asking employees to ski slowly, not shred in large groups, and give skiers enough space while making turns near them.
He concludes that if this doesn’t improve, they would consider either ban employees from skiing blackout dates or during the busiest part of the ski day until they grow a deep snowpack. There’s definitely some concern among employees about taking away skiing privileges for either weekend/holidays or a daily skiing ban until conditions improve. Frankly, the one that sounds worse is the daily ban between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., as this is usually when people shred. Most employees up there love to ski when they’re not working, so pursuing such actions would likely damage Alta Ski Area’s reputation with its workers.
Let’s hope Alta can get some major snowstorms at the end of this year and in 2025.
Image/Video Credits: Alta Ski Area
