Alta Ski Resort
Alta Ski Resort is a world-renowned ski destination located in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. The resort is known for its organic small town feel, nostalgic skiing atmosphere (it's one of the oldest in the nation), and an impressive annual snowfall, which averages over 500 inches per season. The snow at Alta is typically dry and powdery, making for excellent conditions (when it actually snows) for skiing and snowboarding.
The ski season at Alta typically runs from mid-November to mid-April, and the resort offers over 2,200 acres of skiable terrain for all levels of skiers and snowboarders to enjoy. While Alta does not have any terrain parks, it is known for its challenging and diverse terrain, which includes a backcountry for off-piste skiing like no other.
There is no night skiing at Alta.
We recently ranked all of Utah's ski resorts, so you can see where Alta stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Alta is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Alta is a part of the Mountain Collective network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the Collective.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Alta around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Alta Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Alta has a total of 116 ski trails, which are serviced by 11 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 2,200 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 890 hectares, 3.4 square miles, or 8.9 square kilometers.
Alta's slopes see on average 536 inches (16.3 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 44 feet every year!
Total Runs
116
Lifts
11
Skiable Acres
2,200(9 km2)
Annual Snowfall
536"(16,337 cm)
Alta Ski Resort Elevation
Alta Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 10,550 feet, or 3,215 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 8,530 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,020 feet (616 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 10,550 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
10,550'(3,215 m)
Vertical Drop
2,020'(616 m)
Base Elevation
8,530'(2,600 m)
Alta Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
53.3out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Alta has 2,200 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Alta is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 25% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 75%.
Beginner
25%(550 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
40%(880 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
35%(770 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Alta Ski Resort good for beginners?
Alta can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 75% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.
Alta Ski Resort Location
Alta Ski Resort is located in the state of Utah, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Salt Lake City, UT.
Address:
Salt Lake City, UT 84121 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
alta.com
GPS Coordinates:
40.60000, -111.64000
Getting to Alta Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Alta Ski Resort), its coordinates of 40.60000, -111.64000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Salt Lake City, UT to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Alta Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake City International Airport | SLC | Salt Lake City, UT | 22 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Alta.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provo-Utah Lake International Airport | PVU | Provo, UT | 27 mi |
| Ogden Hinckley Airport | OGD | Ogden, UT | 45 mi |
| Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport | RKS | Rock Springs, WY | 151 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Alta Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Alta Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snowbird | Snowbird, UT | 11,000 ft | 83% | 1 mi |
| Brighton | Brighton, UT | 10,500 ft | 53% | 3 mi |
| Solitude | Salt Lake City, UT | 10,035 ft | 53% | 3 mi |
| Deer Valley | Park City, UT | 9,570 ft | 66% | 7 mi |
| Park City Mountain | Park City, UT | 10,000 ft | 76% | 10 mi |
| Woodward Park City | Park City, UT | 6,840 ft | 14% | 11 mi |
| Sundance | Sundance, UT | 8,250 ft | 58% | 13 mi |
| Nordic Valley (Wolf Mountain) | Eden, UT | 6,400 ft | 42% | 34 mi |
| Powder Mountain | Cedar Valley, UT | 9,422 ft | 58% | 42 mi |
| Eagle Point | Huntsville, UT | 10,600 ft | 53% | 46 mi |
| Cherry Peak Resort | Richmond, UT | 7,040 ft | 40% | 92 mi |
| Snowbasin | Orangeville, UT | 9,350 ft | 62% | 93 mi |
| Beaver Mountain | Garden City, UT | 8,860 ft | 43% | 95 mi |
Alta Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 10,550 ft |
| Base Elevation | 8,530 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,020 ft |
| Trails | 116 (25% Beginner, 40% Intermediate, 35% Expert) |
| Lifts | 11 |
| Skiable Acres | 2,200 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 536 inches |