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Alta Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / 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!

Trails
Total Runs
116
Ski Lift
Lifts
11
Skier
Skiable Acres
2,200(9 km2)
Snow
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.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
10,550'(3,215 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
2,020'(616 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
8,530'(2,600 m)

Alta Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
53.3out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Alta can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. 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 ski level.

 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%.
Green Circle
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.

Blue Square
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%.

Black Diamond
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.

NameCodeCityDistance
Salt Lake City International AirportSLCSalt Lake City, UT22 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.

NameCodeCityDistance
Provo-Utah Lake International AirportPVUProvo, UT27 mi
Ogden Hinckley AirportOGDOgden, UT45 mi
Southwest Wyoming Regional AirportRKSRock Springs, WY151 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.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
SnowbirdSnowbird, UT11,000 ft83%1 mi
BrightonBrighton, UT10,500 ft53%3 mi
SolitudeSalt Lake City, UT10,035 ft53%3 mi
Deer ValleyPark City, UT9,570 ft66%7 mi
Park City MountainPark City, UT10,000 ft76%10 mi
Woodward Park CityPark City, UT6,840 ft14%11 mi
SundanceSundance, UT8,250 ft58%13 mi
Nordic Valley (Wolf Mountain)Eden, UT6,400 ft42%34 mi
Powder MountainCedar Valley, UT9,422 ft58%42 mi
Eagle PointHuntsville, UT10,600 ft53%46 mi
Cherry Peak ResortRichmond, UT7,040 ft40%92 mi
SnowbasinOrangeville, UT9,350 ft62%93 mi
Beaver MountainGarden City, UT8,860 ft43%95 mi

Alta Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation10,550 ft
Base Elevation8,530 ft
Vertical Drop2,020 ft
Trails116
(25% Beginner,  40% Intermediate,  35% Expert)
Lifts11
Skiable Acres2,200
Avg. Annual Snowfall536 inches
Alta Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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