Catherine’s Area
Catherine’s Area is a complete tributary glacial valley that flowed into Albion Basin. It has all of the glacial features common to this environment, a broad cirque, a U-shaped valley, broad flat and distinct hanging valley just east of the Supreme Chair Lift. Catherine’s area is like entering into a separate ski area with many […]
Glory Hole and Glory Hole Gulley
Glory Hole is a small steep-sided cirque cut into the Tintic Quartzite where ice remained long after it had melted elsewhere in much of Albion Basin. Glory Hole Gulley was initially carved by run-off from the cirque glacier and is now occupied by a summer creek. Glory Hole and Yellow Trail in the afternoon shadows.
Corkscrew and Corkscrew Gulley
Corkscrew follows a stream channel that cut into the Collins Gulch hanging valley after the ice had melted. This channel represents about 6,000 years of stream erosion. Alta has widened the run somewhat to accommodate more skier traffic. Corkscrew Gulley is the same stream channel cutting through gentle terrain at the bottom of the Collins […]
Collins Face
At Collins Face you have the experience of skiing over a hanging valley that has not been significantly affected by post glacial erosion. The result is an abrupt steepening of pitch from the gentle slope of the Meadow above and a broad run-out into the valley of Little Cottonwood Canyon at the bottom. Collins Face […]
Stonecrusher
At Stonecrusher you ski down a chute that transects all of the eastern profile of the Collins Gulch U-shaped valley from the base of the Ophir Shale cliffs to the valley bottom. Like many of the runs at Alta it starts out steep and gradually flattens out toward the bottom of the valley. Stonecrusher
The Back Side
The Back Side is the west side of the Albion Basin U-shaped valley. Runs typically begin steeply (the High Notch and Eddy’s High Nowhere) and become gentler below. The rocks exposed at the top of the Back Side are nearly vertical beds of the Cambrian Ophir Shale. Three principle traverses access the Back Side; the […]
Devil’s Castle
The cliffs of Devils Castle are made up of limestones. These limestones are severely fractured and if you look carefully you’ll see that there are outcrops along the face of the Castle that appear to be hanging on precariously. Several thousand years ago the face of Devil’s Caste fell off in an enormous, catastrophic, debris […]
Ballroom
Ballroom is a broad cirque, where ice collected and remained for thousands of years. Above it are the cliffs of the Mt. Baldy headwall. The cirque has a classic bowl shape. Slopes are concave with the steepness of the slope increasing with altitude. There are three separate traverse entrances into Ballroom allowing the skier to […]
The Main Chute
The Main Chute is a steeper version of Gunsight. This challenging run is formed by the Gunsight fracture system cutting through the glacial headwall formed in the Tintic Quartzite at the head of the Collins Gulch glacier and the Ballroom Cirque. The fracture is an effective snow trap, just wide enough to get your skis […]
Gunsight
A northeast-trending structure cuts through the Ophir Shale allowing a narrow entry way to one of the finest snow traps on the mountain. As you ski down Gunsight you ski down one of the fractures that hosted silver mineralization in the Little Cottonwood mining district. This fracture cuts through the Albion Basin U-shaped valley and […]