A powder day revelation at Alta

January 10, 4:25 PMSalt Lake City Outdoor Recreation ExaminerJared Hargrave

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Daniel Kovach skiing untracked snow at Alta 

I've always been curious about the intangible aspects that make Alta great, so this season I made a commitment to ski there more often and explore it's legendary powder. On Friday, my commitment paid off in the form of an unplanned discovery off the Wildcat lift. The discovery being that it's the first place one should go on a powder day.

The snow report on Alta's website on Friday morning said 9 inches of new snow fell overnight. So my friend, Daniel, and I parked at Alta before the resort opened, geared up, and saw that the Collins lift was already stacked up with a huge line that extended past the ropes. Wildcat, on the other hand, had hardly any line at all. I suppose the draw to Collins is the High Rustler Traverse that everyone and their grandma tries to get to on a powder day, but we resisted that urge and got on Wildcat instead. There, we found out that Wildcat has some of the best powder skiing at Alta, but for some unknown reason, it gets no love. While the hordes packed into the corral at Collins, Daniel and I spun laps until lunchtime on untracked powder through the trees under Wildcat.

Once the rest of the mountain opened after ski patrol finished avalanche control work, the crowds spread out to other lifts and Collins became as empty as Wildcat was. We took some decent runs down Eagle's Nest and Stone Crusher, but our minds were still on Wildcat and the impossible realization that we skied untracked lines all morning on a powder day at Alta.