Last ski season was abruptly terminated in early March 2020 when the pandemic hit: all the Utah ski resorts closed down as everyone scrambled to understand what was going on. Many of the ski resorts, Alta included, offered a credit towards a 2020/2021 season pass to make up for the two month foreshortening of the 19/20 season. (Alta also then raised the price of their season passes for the first time in ten years, all but negating that credit, but that's not the point.) As the deadline to buy passes grew closer - end of August - H and I fretted incessantly since Utah's case numbers were ... not good. In the end, we bought Alta season passes, as we have since our second year here, comforted by the fact that for the first time, Alta offered 100% money back if you haven't used your pass by the end of December. This would, we reasoned, give us a chance to see how the early season shook out.
It's now in the early season and we're still fretting incessantly. It hasn't snowed in three weeks (big time drought y'all) and the base is under two feet. We were in Moab for Alta's opening weekend but stayed in SLC for this past weekend and H, after much fretting, decided to go skiing. Things are different.
The ski busses are running but only allowing twenty people on each bus. Cars are being spaced - with a six foot pole - which H estimates will decrease available parking by 20-25%. Right now, Alta is offering updates on parking availability via social media - the powers that be are not allowing vehicles up the canyons once Alta and Snowbird's parking is full (no more road parking); Snowbird is requiring parking reservations. Once you get up there, as a season passholder/day skier, options are limited. You cannot go into the Goldminer's Daughter lodge to use the bathrooms or the day lockers; bathrooms are available at Wildcat base only in the skier services building and they are letting people in one at a time. Bathrooms and some lockers are available at Albion (also Watsons and Alf's, once you get on the mountain). On mountain, Alf's no longer allows you to bring your own food: you are seated at a specific table and order from the table, and they ask that you limit your stay to thirty minutes. In the liftlines, masks are required and employees are calling people out if they're not wearing them over nose and mouth (I'm okay with that). The singles lines have been eliminated: the new rule is, if you arrive together, you ride together.
We knew H would go a little crazy if he didn't ski this year, new restrictions and all. So he skied both Saturday and Sunday, driving up and sitting in the truck until the chair opened (because you can't wait in the lodge). He rode each chair by himself, which was fine now, when there weren't that many people skiing, but the lift lines are going to get so long once the snow and the skiers come. Skiing is very limited right now, due to the dearth of snow, and all southern-facing slopes are bare. He went off-piste once and immediately regretted it (hard, crusty, rocks). He skied until 1 p.m. each day, then drove home, still fretting.
Me, I still don't know what to do. If I take the bus, I'll have to wear my boots, because I can't use the day lockers, and I'll have to wait outside, getting cold, until the lifts start. I won't be allowed to go into any lodges to warm up on cold days and I get cold very quickly when it's under 20F. I could drive up with H and then take the bus down if I get cold/want to leave earlier, I suppose. It just all sounds like such a huge hassle. We're not blaming Alta for this at all - they are making the best of a bad situation, as is everyone these days - I just don't know if it's worth it for me. I've got another couple of weeks to fret some more and figure it out.
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