In short, our Alta luxury vacation rentals center on one exceptional home, The Pinnacle at Powder Ridge, at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, prepared to five-star standards, backed by a local team, and about forty-five minutes from Salt Lake City.
This is a purist's mountain. One of the oldest ski areas in the country and still family-owned, it has stayed independent, unhurried, and skiers only, one of just three mountains in the United States that do not allow snowboarding. What it does allow is powder: an average of more than 500 inches a season, among the best snow anywhere.
It sits at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains, with a base near 8,530 feet and a summit above 11,000, and it shares a saddle with neighboring Snowbird, so the Alta-Bird ticket opens both. Salt Lake City's airport is only about thirty-two miles down the canyon, roughly forty-five minutes, which makes this some of the most accessible deep-powder skiing in the West.
Summer is a quiet secret. Albion Basin, just above the ski area, holds one of the finest wildflower displays in the country from mid-July, and the short hike to Cecret Lake is among the most rewarding in the Wasatch. The rest of the year, the canyon belongs to the skiers who come back for the snow and to the five historic lodges at the base.
