Today's Article

“It’s 1bluebird. It’s 2ripping.”

You won’t hear many 3complaints, especially coming out of our last three years of 4drought.

“It’s so much better. [INAUDIBLE] It’s crazy.”

“Yeah, I mean from a recreational 5perspective, it’s awesome.”

Even for some who were stranded this holiday, it’s not a bad place to be.

“I’ve been skiing every day. My flight was canceled. So I was gonna go back home for the holidays and then Delta was like, ‘That’s not gonna happen.’ But it’s been good because the storm has been awesome.”

But getting to this point today, and in the fresh powder days to come...

“They’ll start the morning at 4, 5 in the morning to get the, the lifts open by 9:15 sometimes.”

Ski patrol will put in some early and extra hours to get the mountain safe and open. Part of the daily balance during the good times of ski season.

“It’s crazy. We have a 98 inch base, we’re almost at that 100 inch base and we have 260 inches so far and another storm’s coming in and we’re not even into the New Year.”

But the piece of that they cannot control is when the main road has to 6be shut down by UDOT because of 7avalanche concerns up further.

“That generally results in gridlock at Alta, to 2 or 3 hours.”

Alta general manager, Mike Maughan says the closure forces more cars to park on the road backing things way up at the end of the day... highlighting the need for some sort of a 8solution, gondola, buses, whatever.

“Right now. It’s really a 9disadvantage to Alta customers, particularly when the main line is closed.”

Though the half-dozen or so skiers I talked with today said they’ll gladly face the 10gridlock for conditions like this.