Moving to Alta/Snowbird?

k2yeags

k2yeags

Active member
So I'm thinking of trying to move to either Alta or snowbird for the season and was looking for a little NS advise. I'm a relatively broke college student as far as budgeting goes.Which town is better, Alta or Snowbird and how closely connected are they? is there a bus? How much does it coast?How much is rent going to run me? Optimally i'm looking for a tiny single studio apartment but I might be sharing it with my girl friend so I could potentially get a more expensive one.Job wise, I have worked in restaurants before, I know how to tune skis and I could also potentially work as a ski instructor.
Finally I do Not have my own car so will be looking for some way to make it all work without any driving.
Any thoughts, suggestions or Ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
you don't really live up the canyon unless your living in employee housing up there. you'll probably end up living in salt lake, or the cottonwood heights area if you have a bit more cash flow. snowbird and alta aren't really towns, its just the mountain and then a bunch of multi million dollar ski cabins around. but it's not like an aspen or vail. there's no like village area, you drive up a canyon for 20 minutes and then it's just the two resorts and backcountry access for the most part.
 
there's a bus that runs up the canyon pretty frequently. i don't know how alta's job hiring process is but i worked at snowbird this winter as a busboy and they have a huge job fair in octoberish i believe. if you have some background in different jobs you'll definitely get hired.
 
Are there any bus services that are cheep from the cottonwood heights area up to those two resorts?
 
When you worked for snowbird did you live in the employee housing? And If you did what was it like?
 
no, employee housing is only really offered to hotel employees. one of my roomates last year was a ski instructor at alta if you want to try and figure that out. PM him his account names ski_unit_19.
 
if you look for a place on somewhere like craigslist, try and find one in cottonwood heights that says something like "walking access to ski bus". you can find them, but i'd start looking soon, they get snatched up pdq.

if you have a pass, you don't have to pay for the bus. same if you work for a resort. techinically it is possible to get on a bus in downtown salt lake city and get off of one at a resort, but it is a big time wasting pain in the ass. don't fall for that if you find a place that has bus access to the resorts, ask how many transfers or where the stop is located.

you could always try and hook up a ride from someone on here or just buy a shitty ass car and drive it out here too.
 
if you had a few mil you could buy a house at the town of Alta... but with a pass from any of the 4 CW ski areas you can ride a bus from the various park and rides. I found them to be super convenient and rode the bus almost every time and had only 1 bad experience.

The bases are about 1 mile apart, but with skiing, SB and alta are touching- from the SB baldy lift you can see the Alta wildcat or sugarsomething lift, i think, hell there is ever a well monitored gate in which you can go back and forth, but you could also hike up baldy.

If you look, you can find a decent, affordable apt close to the U, plus there are plenty of nice kids with sprinter vans to give you rides
 
alta has employee housing for just about any job up there but if your girlfriend is living with you, you should probably look for something close to a park n ride
 
for living situations up there i have talked to someone while skiing at snowbird once who worked at the resturaunt or something and said he just lived in the cliff lodge in the hotel rooms or something like that, perhaps you would get a discount or something like that? i would ask about that, he said it was a real sick setup
 
the busses to the mtns run all along Wasatch Blvd. So yeah its pretty easy to catch one. For price, if you ride the bird (not too sure on Alta) your seasons pass has a bus pass included. so just swipe/scan your ski pass.
 
super duper false information. you get something like a 20% discount off the rooms. he probably meant when you get interlodged, or snowed in, which means if the roads close down and you have to work at like six the next morning, before the roads would open, snowbird gives you a shitty little room you have to share with 15 other employees, and a free shitty box dinner. it's not a sick setup, it sounds glorious when you just hear about it, but managers get the beds and your shit out of luck sleeping on the ground with a bunch of other people.
 
Truth. My buddy works at Cliff Sports and has had to sleep in their office before because the hotels are full. Don't bank on having any sort of lodging provided to you by Snowbird.

Bank on living in Cottonwood Heights or Sandy and taking the bus.
 
i worked up at the peruvian lodge at alta temporarily and lived in the housing there. ive never been in any other employee housing so i cant compare but it wasnt bad if you are there to ski. most people had 3 people in their tiny ass room with bunk beds and community bathrooms. food wasnt the greatest but it was food. i would say if you want to do other things than just ski live in salt lake and just take the drive up there. plus theres tons of jobs to be had in SLC. you can always work at backcountry.com and get mad discounts on all your gear
 
pinnacle highland apartments right on 20th is dope, 2 bedroom for1,000 with a bus stop right at the apartments right next to the pizza hut, i lived there for a winter with a roommate, had an awesome time, gonna try and get back there either this winter or the next, i will be spending at least a month or two this winter in slc requardless because a winter in jersey without being in the 801 at all might indeed kill me....

i used to talk so much shit about how much i hated salt lake when i lived there, but now 801 is ink'd on my body and i spend every minute trying to figure out how im going to get back.

-by the way i have no idea how old this thread is but if your still looking there is definately houses in cwood heights that is just a bunch of skiers going in on renting house, most dont even know each other but those are always the dopest most fun spots, try and find one of those. (and if the house is full the couch usually costs you a little less anyway, but you kind of end up being the house bitch.
 
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