Working and Living at Alta AMA

firecrotch

firecrotch

Active member
Hey everyone, back in the fall I was planning on writing some news articles about the season spent at Alta but I never got around to it. So, I figured id post up this thread to see if anyone is thinking about doing it too and has any questions, because it was far and away the season of my life. I'll be happy to answer anything I can! heres my season edit below if you're interested

[video]https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/828256/First-Season-Out-West[/video]
 
Been planning on doing a season there the winter after I graduate college for a few years now, where did you work/ live? One of my cousins did a season there washing dishes and such in the Goldminers daughter restaraunt and got free housing, but that was at least 10 years ago, do they still have employee housing at the mountain? Living up there for a winter seems fucking awesome glad to see you enjoyed it
 
damn that got me stoked to ski! cant wait for winter. but that sounds super sick, would you ski every day and work every night, or what was your work schedule?
 
where'd you work? my good friend/ski buddy kicked it with the Alf's crew all year grilling that quality Sysco food and skiing deep pow everyday. sounded like a dirtbags dream, honestly.
 
Never been to Alta but I've wanted to go for years. How would you compare it to these resorts: Breck, Key, Abay, Vail, Beaver Creek, Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Heavenly
 
13696829:kami said:
Never been to Alta but I've wanted to go for years. How would you compare it to these resorts: Breck, Key, Abay, Vail, Beaver Creek, Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Heavenly
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Only resorts I think it can compare to on that list is Squaw/Alpine.

Alta blows most of the colorado resorts out of the water (not to say they are bad at all though).

At squaw/alpine, alta, and a select few other areas in the country....the amount and extreme level of insane terrain that is just so accessible is mind blowing. Very very hard to find that at many resorts across the country. At Alta/Squaw, etc you could be on some of the hardest inbounds / side country runs in the country (world?) with such minimal hikes. In colorado most of the comparable terrain required much much more of a hike. Abay east wall is like 5x the length of a hike. Plus you're hiking at such a lower altitude makes it noticeably easier.
 
13696671:.squirrely. said:
Been planning on doing a season there the winter after I graduate college for a few years now, where did you work/ live? One of my cousins did a season there washing dishes and such in the Goldminers daughter restaraunt and got free housing, but that was at least 10 years ago, do they still have employee housing at the mountain? Living up there for a winter seems fucking awesome glad to see you enjoyed it
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I worked at the Rus, there are five lodges all at the base of Alta that mostly provide the same benefits (pass, housing, food). The lodge I worked at is the nicest of the five, but that also meant that we had some of the worst customers.

13696711:.=.e said:
damn that got me stoked to ski! cant wait for winter. but that sounds super sick, would you ski every day and work every night, or what was your work schedule?
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I could ski at least some every day. I worked as a dishwasher five days/40 hours a week. I had thursday and friday off, worked from 3 pm - 11 pm on saturday- tuesday and from 7:30 am - 3:30 pm on wednesdays. the day shift always blew but it only fell on a pow day once or twice this season and I could always still go out and blast a few groomers before lifts closed at 4:30. sometimes on slow days we would get let out for an hour or two to ski as well.

13696715:DeebieSkeebies said:
where'd you work? my good friend/ski buddy kicked it with the Alf's crew all year grilling that quality Sysco food and skiing deep pow everyday. sounded like a dirtbags dream, honestly.
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I worked at the rustler and it really was. The only downside is the lack of freedom that comes from dormitory housing and not having your own place, but the proximity to the mountain more than made up for it in my mind.

13696770:Holte said:
What did you have for lunch?
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My lodge had a fridge that was open and stocked 24/7, so whatever I wanted really. on pow days i would just fill my pockets with nature valley bars and cheese sticks, otherwise I could come in and make a sandwich or burrito or salad or nachos then head back out

13696797:Ski_The_East. said:
What hours were you working/ how much were you able to ski?... Any exceptions of mid week powder days?
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I worked full time like I said above, but I only missed two pow days this season due to my day shift. 6 days a week I could ski basically the whole day
 
13696829:kami said:
Never been to Alta but I've wanted to go for years. How would you compare it to these resorts: Breck, Key, Abay, Vail, Beaver Creek, Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Heavenly
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I've never skied any of those resorts, but I believe that Alta/bird gets some of the most snow in the west (not including baker and PNW), as the most consistently blower powder. Not sure how it compares terrain wise, I do wish that Alta had more terrain that was easily accessed without traversing, but I also don't know how much traversing is required at the resorts you mentioned. Alta does have a nice variety of steeps, cliffs & chutes, tree skiing and flowy terrain that is good for building jumps and whatnot. I also had a pass to snowbird, which has more vertical and more fun spring groomer cruising
 
What'd you do at night? I know you said you worked till 11 some nights but otherwise whats there to do up in little cottonwood? Peruvian bar closes at 9 the tram club always seems empty.

Also how often would you ski Snowbird since you had a pass?
 
13696829:kami said:
Never been to Alta but I've wanted to go for years. How would you compare it to these resorts: Breck, Key, Abay, Vail, Beaver Creek, Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Heavenly
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basically the same as all of those above
 
13696925:belden... said:
What'd you do at night? I know you said you worked till 11 some nights but otherwise whats there to do up in little cottonwood? Peruvian bar closes at 9 the tram club always seems empty.

Also how often would you ski Snowbird since you had a pass?
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Theres very little to do at night in little cottonwood, mostly chilling and turning up with yer friends. Some nights we would throw legit parties or go to ones at the other lodges, other nights we watched movies on a projector. My lodge had a hot tube, steam room and sauna that were open till 10. Did a couple of night tours when the moon was full and it was super bright out. Thats about it haha.

As for snowbird, I skied keyhole over to the bird on most pow days but probably spent less than 1/5 of my days actually dedicated to skiing snowbird. I had a couple great spring skiing days in mineral basin and a couple sleeper mid week storm skiing days when no one was there. also we would ski off the back of devils castle at Alta and skin up to snowbird and take the lifts back. also also, had some fun days at the bird blazing and skiing really fast groomer laps

Oh and some people in the lodge went to movies or basketball games or bowling down in salt lake at night but I only went two or three times
 
Hey man, thanks for sharing your experience. I'm really thinking about doing this coming season out west, anywhere really, UT, Co, cali, wherever, sounds like Alta is a pretty good place to do it.
 
I plan on being a local scumbag there this next winter. Been to Utah once, got buried. I mainly board but rented skis at Alta and had the best day ever and went and bought a set of skis.
 
13698824:safarisam said:
How's the employee housing?
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I thought the housing was pretty chyll, I'm 18 I don't really care where I sleep though. I was in a dorm with 3 other guys and it was pretty cramped for the most part with all our gear but there was still some room for chillin. Most rooms had 2 or 3 people. I don't really have any complaints about the housing, any crampedness paid off x 1000 when it snowed 20 inches of blower overnight and I was living in little cottonwood canyon at the base of alta

13699012:MikeStreeter said:
why is alta ski only? (my dads a boarder)
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I don't really know why. I skied both alta and snowbird and I think snowboarders would have a tough time riding alta due to the amount of side stepping and traversing you need to do to get to the dope terrain. Also could kinda understand the snowboarding ban when I skied at snowbird on a pow day and there were tons of boarders postholing along a traverse because they couldn't pole. Plenty of snowboarders hike from the bird over baldy to poach Alta too

13699071:Frozinballz said:
I plan on being a local scumbag there this next winter. Been to Utah once, got buried. I mainly board but rented skis at Alta and had the best day ever and went and bought a set of skis.
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Awesome do it. I definitely skied way more pow this season than I had for the rest of my life combined
 
Nilert is the homie!! aka tall swede w blonde hair. good homie from college!

looked like a really awesome season!
 
13696829:kami said:
Never been to Alta but I've wanted to go for years. How would you compare it to these resorts: Breck, Key, Abay, Vail, Beaver Creek, Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Heavenly
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I would rather ski Alta than any of those resorts except Squaw and maybe Alpine. I think Squaw and possibly Alpine have better terrain but the terrain at Alta is sick. I should mention that I did my ski bum years after college at Squaw, so I know it much better, and when I have visited Utah I skied primarily Snowbird. Alta absolutely rocks. They have great terrain and get a ton of snow. The snow is light so it does not stick onto steep terrain quite as well as the Sierra cement but you get so much of it that it might be worth it. I don't know if I can think of anywhere better to do a ski season. The combination of terrain and snow is awesome.

So yeah, compared to those resorts I think you will be very happy.
 
13699172:Skibumsmith said:
and you get to party with Leo Ahrens sister.
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I won't lie, the first time I saw her skiing, I was like, I gotta follow that girl, and so I did, and then I realized she clearly had a guy and was heartbroken.
 
14304553:BigPurpleSkiSuit said:
I won't lie, the first time I saw her skiing, I was like, I gotta follow that girl, and so I did, and then I realized she clearly had a guy and was heartbroken.
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Yeah she’s pretty great.
 
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