Why do people cling to Alta like an old relative, like that witty grandfather who could do no wrong in a child’s eyes? Why Alta? And why do people follow around Widespread Panic? We don’t really know. Some things you can explain; others you can’t—although I feel better about Alta’s cult than I do Panic’s.

Somebody recently equated Alta with the Boston Red Sox to me, which fits. Or better yet, Alta as Fenway Park. Wrigley Field also works, but then it doesn’t because, unlike the Cubs, Alta skiers win every year. They win on almost all fronts: the best snow, great terrain and a lift ticket price that’s the lowest in the industry amongst peers.

The terrain at Alta makes a powerful first impression. We’ve always thought that’s one of the visceral forces that elicits such adoration of Alta: it’s majestic; it looks like a ski magazine advertisement. High Rustler, one of the signature runs in North America, is right in your face looking up from the main Wildcat base area. Once you have taken the considerable time to find High Rustler from the top, you realize that Alta is an area that rewards such efforts and reveals its secrets slowly.

A lot of resorts take days to figure out. Alta can take weeks, years. This is part of the attraction of the place. You can find deserted areas on busy days and choose more neglected sectors of the mountain on powder days. Alta is one of those places you can ski for a decade and still find something new on each visit. Befriend a local to accelerate your learning curve. Playing well to a general audience is the fact that Alta has gobs of intermediate cruisers that roll across the resort in wide ribbons of white. Many of them run shoulder-to-shoulder with expert terrain that most blue-riders, while they enjoy gazing at it, would prefer to avoid, an easy task here.

Powder days at Alta are more numerous than anywhere else, and the clouds often conspire to brew up snow of the perfect moisture content (8% to 9%) and consistency. Competition for powder can be fierce, but it can stick around well into the afternoon because so much of the best terrain requires laborious traversing, which wards off a lot of otherwise earnest tourists from the best stuff.

The traverse to High Rustler is a local favorite and one that takes time and skating. Delving away from the main High Rustler shot up the middle can lead skiers to lengthy stashes that can stay fresh for days. Some of our favorite stashes, however, are in the much-easier-to-access Wildcat area, which fails to get mined as thoroughly as some of the higher terrain.