Alta Opening Day - The Best Ever?

By Powderhound Matt \ December 3 2016

Friday was Opening Day at Alta. A slow start to the winter delayed the expected opening by two weeks, making it the latest Opening Day at Alta in recent memory... it also was quite possibly the best Opening Day ever!

A storm Thanksgiving Week brought enough snow to bring the resort to the brink of opening. Resisting peer pressure from Brighton, Snowbird and Park City, Alta made the call to wait one more week. They also made the unpopular decision to shut down uphill traffic to us powderhounds looking to ski some of our favorite preseason lines.

After a 40-plus inch storm hammered the Wasatch this past week, stoke levels were at an all-time high as Opening Day approached. We watched as the pros got early ups on Thursday to preview what was waiting for us at Alta. Naturally as skiers, we assumed that all of the good snow had been skied already. Boy, were we wrong.

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Wildcat and Collins began loading chairs Friday morning at 9:15 am to the cheers of an eager line-up of skiers chomping at the bit. It only took one turn on Wildcat to realize that the patrol, the mountain ops guys, and everyone at Alta had made the right call to delay opening until Friday. We all owe you a major debt of gratitude, especially Ski Patrol.

On behalf of our entire crew, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Our first turns of the season at Alta, under bluebird conditions, were some of the deepest and best opening day turns ever. There was not a person on that mountain not smiling ear to ear.

I lapped Wildcat and Collins all morning long until my legs couldn't take it anymore.

Others were overly-eager to get out and send some moves they'd obviously been working on at the water ramps this summer. Check out Après Adam's take on Opening Day as he, Kevin Learned, Giray Dadali and Ahmet Dadali spent the morning sending Alta's "Terrain Park" under Wildcat. And finished with a Shot Ski per Opening Day traditions.