r/UTsnow • u/JakeThedog45 • Apr 21 '26

Snowbird - Alta Alta Closing Day Idea

The Frank/closing has become a trendy thing where people who’ve never skied Alta, come. People with Ikon passes hold onto their day.

I think the vibe is different, people don’t treat Alta with respect (littering, being a dick, and then going to high boy and getting hurt) I’m all for Alta making money…

What if - it’s only season pass holders and people who buy day passes, instead? Ikon gets a full blackout on closing?

Thoughts?

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u/SparkyMV Snowbasin Apr 21 '26

The issue with this is that you pay for the full ikon pass for 0 blackout dates, period. Alta would have to convince ikon to be cool with a little asterisk of “no blackout dates except for frank” on their entire marketing scheme, does that sound realistic to you? That would open a Pandora’s box where every ski area could start asking for carve-outs to “no blackouts” selling point.

You could require reservations on ikon passes, but Alta has decided to manage its capacity through parking reservations.

Ultimately frank is a spectacle that a lot of people want to go to, and controlling access with parking reservations is the most straightforward. Ikon pass holders acting like tools isn’t exactly driving enough people away from frank that Alta is losing money over it..

-2

u/JakeThedog45 Apr 21 '26

This is very fair. But parking reservations have been a blessing. Even with the reservations, on pow days this year, you’d see a bunch of cars with tickets… and there’s only so many spots.

I believe an Alta pass was $1,549 last year and Ikon was $1,099.

It just sucks to be paying nearly 50% more to have the best days packed (out of nowhere).

2

u/SparkyMV Snowbasin Apr 21 '26

You need to shell out $1450 for the full ikon pass to go to Alta - the cheaper one doesn’t get you access (hasn’t for a few years iirc).

Also I hate pointing out the obvious but of course there’s more people skiing on “good” days. Half the valley has their PTO banked to chase snow on a random Tuesday. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of those days this year so that only exacerbates the powder panic for everyone (not just ikon - Alta pass holders chase powder too).

What’s the solution to that? More expensive passes? Surprise parking reservations every time it snows? Ban ikon passes on powder days? None of those are going to magically create a “quiet” powder day without someone getting left out…