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Recent Press
WHERE TO STAY Alta’s five small base-area lodges have their own distinct personalities and fiercely loyal clientele. Each of the lodges also offers lower-priced dorms and rooms with shared baths. Ski-in, ski-out dorms are rare at other resorts . Even rarer, the lodges are very social — most have communal dining tables — so that solo skiers won’t feel out of place. If that weren’t enough, lavish breakfasts and dinners are included in the basic rate.
Among the friendliest is the 57-room Alta Lodge ( 10230 East Route 210; 800-707-2582; www.altalodge.com). Built in 1939, it has a split personality: rustic, knotty-pine rooms in the original section; spare, midcentury-modern décor in the newer wing. Four gender-specific dorms, which sleep up to four, start at $133 a person and include breakfast, afternoon tea and a four-course dinner. The popular Sitzmark bar, his and her saunas, and two large hot tubs ensure a communal vibe. The New York Times, Dec. 13, 2009
Steps Above: a little bit of luxury hides in Alta's powder. But even here, where "no frills" is the height of anti-fashion, there is a high-end clientele. For them, there is the Alta Lodge. SNOW Magazine, Mid-winter 2009.
Alta Lodge best bang for your buck. Coziest après-ski bar the Sitzmark Club. Sunset Magazine December 2008
The List All who stay for good at Alta grow to protect their way of life. Alta Lodge encourages this sense of ownership, whether it’s by keeping a list of future employees or by keeping the place the same for generations. As for that little boy who begged forgiveness and another chance to get on that list, [Bill] Levitt says he probably came back as an adult. “They always do.” The Ski Journal, Winter 2008
Ah, spring. For many people, it’s a time for daffodils, the Easter Bunny, and migrating birds. But skiers know that April is all about Alta – skiing, that is. CEO Traveler, Spring 2007
Deep Devotion Abundant snow and legendary terrain have earned Alta, Utah, more than a cult following. Alta-worship is its own religion, whose pilgrims return year after year to hole up between ski days in one of the resort’s five distinct and delightfully quirky lodges — sometimes for months at a stretch.
Here's what you need to understand about Alta Lodge: In each guestroom are two cards. The first reminds guests to rebook early, because the lodge has a return rate of 80 percent. The second is a comment card, perhaps the only one of its kind in the nation. It asks guests to tell management what they don't want to see changed at Alta Lodge.
The list is long.
Every lodge has its vibe, and Alta Lodge's is decidedly East Coast enclave, subtly patrician, Old Money. It feels like the clubhouse of a country club whose members are so comfortable with who they are that they no longer have anything to prove. “The lodge here reminds me of a Vermont lodge, or old Adirondack lodges, where families would come back year after year. And they weren't fancy, but they had this camaraderie and social interaction, and people could enjoy their outdoor experience,” says David Davenport, who has a unique perspective from behind his counter at the Alta Store, a cubbyhole of a general store in the basement of the Alta Lodge.
Alta Lodge feels smart, Ivy League. One afternoon there's a guy in the lobby reading a doorstop called Factional Conflict and Foreign Policy.... folks like this could go anywhere, stay anywhere, a longtime Alta Lodge observer told me. But they like the place because it's easy. They make decisions every day. Here they just wake up, pad down the hall, eat. Step outside and ski. The constancy is cherished. Change is threatening. Tradition is good. “They notice when the seatcovers change in this place,” says Dan Withey, the longtime bartender at the upstairs Sitzmark Club.
One evening - continuing the embraced Alta Lodge tradition of dining with strangers and making new friends - I sit with a group that includes Tom Ruppert, 68, a retired structural engineer from Chicago with a gold pinkie ring and gold bracelet who's been coming to Alta Lodge since 1972. The group is an Alta phenomenon: “Alta friends,” who've met here and now plan to see each other every winter. The subject turns to change, including the booths in the dining room that interfere with those cherished group meals. Ruppert's face turns roughly the shade of turnip. He will never sit in a booth, he swears. “It's not proper to eat at Alta Lodge in a booth!” he nearly yells, putting a fist to the table.
The booths were installed six years ago. God knows what Ruppert will do when he sees last summer's revamp of the lobby. Ski Magazine, November 2007
Of five base lodges, the family-owned ski-in/ski-out Alta Lodge has been
open the longest. The funky, low-key inn was opened by the Denver &
Rio Grande Railroad in 1939 and is practically a museum of ski
memorabilia. Dining is communal but top-notch, and the camaraderie of
the patrons, infectious. The hotel’s private Sitzmark Club is a classic
ski bar that’s a throwback to its founding days.
1,000 Places to See
Before You Die, in the USA and Canada, Patricia Schultz (2007)
Good Ways to Get Better Want to master knee-deep powder on steep slopes? .... Powder Tracks, hosted by the Alta Lodge at Utah's Alta resort, is for intermediate to advanced skiers who want to learn to ski the deep stuff using the latest high-performance fat skis. Washington Post, December 10, 2006
The Warrens figured the only way to avoid that battle, not to mention insulting half the relatives, was to take the kids on a holiday vacation to Utah instead. "We couldn’t go to see both families because they live on opposite coasts," said Terrie Warren of Houston. Now, 17 years later, the Warrens still take their two kids to the old-fashioned Alta Lodge in Utah for the holidays, often taking along a gaggle of snow-loving friends and relatives. "All we miss at home is the stress," Ms. Warren said with a laugh. "This is something we can all count on. … It’s our tradition."Taking the Kids" Eileen Ogintz, Dallas Morning News October 28, 2006
"It's safe to say that there is not another ski hotel like the Alta Lodge...Think "pleasingly austere," with window walls of glass..those walls of glass look out upon Alta, arguably the most beloved ski mountain in the United States....The Lodge is run in the European manner, with breakfast and dinner included in the price of your room. And there are people you will meet in that dining room who have been coming for the better part of 40 years..."
Everett Potter's Travel Journal, October 10, 2006
"Quality snow was the original attraction. But what has really kept Vince and Janet Carpenter coming back to the Alta Lodge almost every winter since 1951 have been the friendships and the memories made..."
Alta Sweethearts, by Mike Gorrell, The Salt Lake Tribune, January 29, 2006
"We opted to go for the classic Alta experience by staying slope side at its oldest lodge, the Alta Lodge, same 1939 vintage as the ski area. This funky ski hotel is a veritable ski museum, from the communal style dining to the décor, which oozes decades of downhill history....The Lodge is infectious like the powder skiing off Alta's Sugarloaf lift. While the accommodations are modest, even retro (no in room TV), the food and camaraderie are exceptional."
Heather Burke, The Boston Globe online, December 2004
"… the venerable Alta Lodge is a throwback to the 1930s. The Alta-oids are fanatics about the lodge; many have been coming here for generations. They pad to the bar in their slippers and bitch if the management dares throw out an old sofa in the lobby … It reminds me of skiing 30 years ago, before skiing became a resort experience."
Michael Kiefer, Ski Press USA, The Travel Issue, Winter 2005
"Decidedly conservative, Alta loyalists love its simplicity and low-key lifestyle, spiced with après-ski conviviality and pleasant conversations over communal dinners … 'People want Alta a bit wild,' Bill Levitt [Mayor of Alta and Alta Lodge owner] says...'Alta skiers want to preserve it as it is," he says. "It's an understated, old-fashioned place, a romantic refuge.'"
Roger Toll, Delta Sky magazine, December 2004
"…When Wendy Ruby, 61, goes on a ski trip, she wants to perfect her form—and be pampered a little bit. High-end ski camps like Powder Tracks in Alta, Utah, are perfect for her. Not only do they teach advanced skiers to handle deep snow by day, they let them eat, sleep and relax around the fireplace at the historic Alta Lodge by night…'I want to get more experience in powder so that I can feel completely comfortable in it,' she says."
Paul Tolme, Newsweek, January 26, 2004
"Alta's long-time guests include Nobel-prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who has skied there on 20 or so annual pilgrimages with his pals William F. Buckley and [A. Lawrence] Chickering. 'Everybody knows everybody.' The hotel doesn't have TVs in the rooms, which encourages guests to wander around meeting each other. 'I just love the Alta Lodge,' says Mr. Friedman."
The Wall Street Journal, March 2004