A tale of two skiers and two mountain resorts in Utah

Once, Katherine asked me, “What was your happiest moment?” I can’t remember what I said. I think it was a family Thanksgiving vacation in Barcelona, far away from eating turkey but close to Gaudi. Katherine’s happiest moment was a deep powder day, making turns down a run at Alta Ski Resort in Utah. 

Most advanced skiers know the feeling. It’s like your chest is full of monarch butterflies, and your mind is free from thought, although you may be humming a tune. For me, I feel supremely thankful. This is me at 63, and I like it! 

I wanted to see why Katherine was so in love with Alta and Alta Lodge. She goes back every year. A Sundance ski pass had been dangling from my desk light, a travel-writing perk acquired at Ski Utah’s fall press party. Thus, the Sundance—Alta four-day ladies’ jaunt from NYC to SLC, was on the calendar. Sundance for two days, Alta for 2.5 days. 

Two Utah resorts, two different vibes

Sundance is like skiing with your friends. It feels local, western, easy, calm. You want to call everyone dude and channel both Jeremiah Johnson and your favorite art teacher or meditation coach. 

Alta is like skiing with your family, especially when staying at Alta Lodge. Case in point:

We were having dinner with Katherine’s friends, a couple she skis with annually. Both families choose Alta Lodge as their Christmas break destination.  

While at dinner, a woman at the table behind us proceeded to have some sort of seizure. In reaction, Katherine loudly chanted, “Doctors, doctors, doctors!”

The couple, both doctors, jumped from the table to help this woman. What makes it an Alta Lodge moment is that the doctors already knew the woman in trouble; they had met years earlier and could call her to consciousness by name. 

The paramedics came, and the doctors, Alicia Rojas and Rob Sloan, were able to give them detailed information about the woman’s condition because they traveled with a medical kit, which came in very handy. So yes, you get to know and care for each other at Alta Lodge. 

Neither Katherine nor I were keen on flying and skiing on the same day. But Utah resorts beat the drum about these early flights for harried New Yorkers who are ambitious in everything they do… that would be more Katherine than me. 

So we take an early flight out, arrive at Sundance about noon, change into our ski clothes (in the public bathrooms), gear up, and get on their new Outlaw Express lift. 

With the influx of capital from Storyteller, Sundance’s new-ish owners who purchased the resort from famed Robert Redford, this process promises to improve. 

Sundance

Sundance broke ground on a new hotel in June (2024).  It will not be “taller than the tallest tree,” a favorite comment of Sundance marketing folks. Instead of one big hotel, two smaller buildings are adjoined by a bridge. As VP Marketing Nick Como explained, it’s all about honoring Robert Redford’s legacy of being “good stewards of the land.” 

And what LAND it is. Our first day on the mountain was sparkling, with temperatures close to 50 degrees. Topanango Mountain is one of the most stunning peaks in Utah. It looks like a mama bear claw that holds the whole mountain in the palm of its hand. 

Katherine and I make interesting ski companions. I’m advanced, and Katherine is expert level—a funny description because she doesn’t get paid for skiing, although she skis like she does. She wants a challenge. She wants to get better. 

To give you a little background, Katherine was born and raised in New York City, attended The Brearley School, and then Haverford. She is a graduate of Harvard Business School, has held several SVP positions, and has been a company president. Then, she started her own executive coaching business for C-suite teams. She skis like she’s getting the job done but loves it just the same. She likes bumps and steeps. 

I was born and raised in Southern California. I attended public school, focusing on dance and surfers. I went to the University of Utah, majoring in journalism. I moved to NYC, became a fashion stylist (before anyone, including my father, knew what that was), and dressed music celebrities for CD packaging. Then, I moved to the burbs, where I met Katherine and continued to dress women for executive lifestyles. 

With her coach hat on, Katherine once asked me, “Who’s driving your bus?” I was having a challenging time with a client. I said Mary Poppins. She asked why. Because Mary is in charge, prudent, fun, practical, cautious, and practically perfect in every way, I ski like Mary would – graceful and cautious. I like to cruise. I like groomers. 

Still, it’s fun to ski together. From Outlaw Express Lift, we took Red’s Lift to the top, and from there, some gentle blues down (skiers left) from Bearclaw to Roundup. With the warm weather, the snow was challenging: soft on the top and hard-packed underneath. 

We both like Bishop’s Bowl and the black runs that feed off of that. Pipeline is fun, although a bit narrow for me. 

The elevation at Sundance is lower than up the Cottonwood Canyons, where Alta, Solitude, and other well-known Utah ski slopes reside.  So snow conditions can be tricky, but Nick, the marketing VP mentioned earlier, said the recent investment in snowmaking equipment “Saved our goat, big time last December,” Lower elevation does have its advantages. Sundance is the first to open for mountain biking and hiking and the last to close. 

Yet skiing is just one of many reasons to go to Sundance. If you want to get creative, dedicate time to making or seeing art at Sundance. 

“The view doesn’t get any better,” said my jewelry-making instructor at the Art Shack, which is several art studios in one building where guests can learn glass-blowing, soap-making, pottery, or perfume. 

I made a turquoise cuff bracelet at a jewelry-making class. I discovered that matrix is the colored, veiny threads running through turquoise. Americans like matrix, while the European market wants turquoise to be unblemished. 

When I shared my jewelry-making efforts with an Alta regular, he snickered, “Oh, so you go to Sundance NOT to ski?”  This alone speaks to the difference between the two resorts. I like both. 

Conservation, nature, and art make Sundance, Sundance. If you’re not interested in a turquoise bobble, make something else or tap into the guided hikes, mountain biking, or plein air painting (and that’s just for starters). 

Theater and film arts? Well, this was Robert Redford’s place and the original home of the Sundance Film Festival. The main building, which houses The Foundry Grill, General Store, Deli, and fancy-dining Tree Room restaurant, has photographs of film legends like Denzel Washington and Quentin Tarantino. Sundance hosts everything from film classes to read-throughs to script-writing workshops. 

Redford found the bar, the bar back, and a side cabinet in Thermopolis, Wyoming at the historic Hole In The Wall Saloon where Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch used to hang out (and, some say, hide loot). Apparently, there were two bars in the establishment, Redford bought the secondary bar, called The Owl Bar, and shipped it to Sundance. The first one resides in Thermopolis’s Hot Springs County Historical Museum. 

Having cocktails in this bar is a boots-and-spurs feeling that captures your imagination of what the true West must have been like in the 1800s. Appropriately, there are several black and white photos decorating the Owl Bar of Redford and Newman as Butch and Sundance. And while Redford never wanted Sundance, the resort, to be a story about him, it always was. 

Going forward, with a 30 million dollar investment from Storyteller and a mission dedicated to conservation, nature, and art. Sundance will become even more Sundance. 

Alta

Alta — pronounce the “a” like apple. That matters to Alta regulars. I was corrected repeatedly. 

I had a Mountain Collective pass, which allows you to visit independently owned and operated resorts worldwide for two days. Alta is part of their “collective.” In addition to the two days, you receive a 50% discount on additional days and one bonus day. Frankly, I thought I was “sticking it to the man” getting this pass. Epic and Icon and their big business mentality for skiing bothers me. But that is fodder for another story. 

Katherine was my guide on our first day, and she did a good job of giving me a feel for the mountain. As we were headed up Collins Lift, she pointed out High Traverse, a feeder for a bunch of blacks that looked terrifying to me but were regular runs for Katherine. This was March; the snow was hard-packed and icy because of the warm days and little snowfall. So High Travers was closed (safety first!), but there were plenty of groomers to swish down that was super fun, no matter the snow conditions. 

When you look at an Alta map, you see more blacks than blues, but it didn’t feel that way. For the way I ski—cautious, casual—it fits.  What I really loved about Alta was staying at Alta Lodge, for that matter any of the accommodations on the mountain would do. It is just SO luxurious to be able to take off your ski boots and walk into your hotel, obviously! 

I met Anastasia Vournas mid-mountain at Collins Grill. As we were both struggling to get our ski boots off and slip into the slippers provided by the restaurant, I asked her about her history with Alta. She had A LOT to say: “Many friends ski in the east–I’m unavailable. I went once, and I said this is so not for me–icey, much colder, windy. I mean, it’s a hostage situation, so awful!”

She went on to explain that Alta is perfect for a multigenerational family. The terrain is varied enough to suit most skiers from beginning to advanced. Furthermore, there are no snowboarders. Anastasia, a C-suit executive who now runs a not-for-profit food foundation, had her opinions: “Snowboarders are not taught how to ski safely. It’s better to ski without snowboarders–Alta is for skiers. This has been THE tagline for Alta’s marketing campaign since snowboarders hit the slopes in the mid-80s.

Katherine and her friend Alicia (remember the doctor?) agreed with Anastasia’s opinion of Alta’s ski school. Anastasia suggests their private lessons, no matter your skill level, but especially if you are a beginner. She explained that, “If you understand the mechanics of skiing, you’ll be fine, even if you begin in your 40s like I did.” 

Katherine has taken advanced ski workshops offered through Alta Lodge, which are a great idea for someone who wants to improve and have ski companions with equivalent skills. 

About arriving at Alta Lodge without a ski buddy, Alicia told me a story on the Supreme Lift. That day we were accessing blues to skiers left, which we heard were a softer bet.  Regardless, lift riding is a great place for storytelling…  Years ago when Alicia was newly divorced, it was Christmas time, and she didn’t want to default back to the family home “with her tail between her legs,” so she signed up for a ski package with lessons and dorm-room-style accommodations at Alta Lodge. 

The ski lessons built confidence (and I’m not just talking about in skiing). Alta Lodge was an easy place to be as a single woman. The staff and guests were friendly and welcoming, and for Alicia it was like going “home” to no judgment, privacy, and a feeling of belonging. 

Fast forward life, she remarried, had a kid, and the family returns to Alta Lodge for winter holidays and spring vacation. The family still accesses the renowned ski school. Alicia has favorite instructors who have become friends. 

The bar at Alta Lodge is a treasure–on the second floor, it overlooks the face of Mount Superior, with an A-frame wood beamed ceiling, a little nook of a bar, it’s unpretentious, and cowboy cool (not your Aspen apres ski scene), decidedly Utah, Alta Utah. I met up with GM Cliff Curry there. (The bar is also the location for morning yoga classes.) 

Cliff was a lawyer in Seattle at a sizable firm. He wasn’t particularly happy, “I just wanted to go skiing. The idea was to come out for one winter, 27 years later, I am still in touch with people I worked with at Snow Pine.” Snow Pine Lodge is another on-mountain lodge where Cliff landed his first Alta job. 

He continued, “Every Wednesday at 2 o’clock I’d go to the phone booth and call the Alta Lodge, ask for Julie–Julie, it’s Cliff Curry, I still want to work there. Finally, when they had an opening, she thought of that guy who bothers me every week. My first job was as a front desk clerk. I just wanted to ski my brains out, no ambition, no plans.” 

As Cliff put it, “Alta Lodge put up with me.” After 27 years of working in almost every position, he learned the ropes, got better at his slalom, and became the big cheese. His willingness to sit down to tell his Alta Lodge story definitely personalized the hotel experience for me. 

During my stay at Alta Lodge, it seemed everyone I met and spoke with had an Alta Lodge story. Now, having been there, I have several of my own. Will I go back to gather and create more? I certainly hope so!