Alta Utah

Ever since I was in Junior High School I would read about the ski resorts out west and dream of skiing them. I would see photos of Breckenridge, Squaw Valley, Vail, Heavenly and the powder of Steamboat Springs. But one resort I was obsessed with skiing someday was Alta Utah. Every picture I saw was of knee deep powder. The other fact I liked was no snowboarders can go here. It is a skiers only mountain with no upscale lodging, just hardcore skiers looking for the greatest snow on earth. My dream came true 1 day after my birthday. I woke up at the cliff lodge in Snowbird and looked out the window to a snow storm. They got 9 inches that night so I knew conditions would be great at Alta. Alta is only a 4 minute drive up from Snowbird but the way the mountain is positioned sucks a lot more snow out of storms then Snowbird. I took a bus up and when I purchased my ticket I read the ski report: 13 inches last 24 hours and 30 past 48 hours! I only had 4 hours to explore the mountain but it was everything I saw on those photos. I was skiing powder that was over my waist and it was light and fluffy. All the slopes were steep and deep, no snowboarders in sight and old school chairlifts that would take you up the hill. They were blasting for avalanches all around me and visibility was low. I followed some guys up the spine of Mount Baldy for a 10 minute hike and was rewarded with the best run of my life. I couldn't see where I was going the snow was so deep. I ended up doing that run 3 times until my legs felt like they were going to fall off. Everywhere I went the powder was deep and untracked. There probably was only 100 people skiing the entire resort. I only got to ski two lifts, but I rode the famous Wildcat lift 10 times to great terrain. There were more tree runs then at Snowbird which means powder for days after a storm. I only skied one bowl but it was huge and had tons of powder in it. To sum it up Alta exceeded my expectations and goes to #1 on my list of ski resorts so far.