Alta Ski Area, UT, Making Big Upgrades This Summer

Throughout the summer, the famous Alta Ski Area in Utah has been getting its hands dirty with numerous infrastructure projects and upgrades to improve the guest experience at the resort. Despite battling sizzling temperatures — multiple 100+ degree days in the Salt Lake Valley — construction crews have been hard at work for the past four months since the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. But with Alta’s 2026-27 season less than 100 days away, the resort is scheduled to open with some sweet new upgrades.

These are some of the summer projects happening at Alta Ski Area. 

Albion Day Lodge Expansion

The biggest of Alta’s summer projects is finishing up the multi-year renovation and expansion of its Albion Day Lodge. The lodge serves as home base for the resort’s main family and beginner-friendly base area, with ticket windows, gear rentals, dining, and direct access to the nearby Sunnyside chairlift.

The most prominent change to the lodge is the addition of 3,400 square feet of dining space and patio seating for its Albion Grill. The new layout will include enormous windows for mountain views, as well as a glass breezeway and an aesthetic overhaul to match the surrounding scenery.

Changes are also being made to the lodge’s east wing. The resort is adding 12 new employee housing units on the third level, as well as a large conference room and several new administrative offices. The east wing’s bottom level will have a new cozy lounge area with fireplaces and cubbies available for day use. The rear of the new downstairs wing will hold restrooms and several bays of lockers available for seasonal rental.

Rounding out the Albion Day Lodge’s renovations is the conversion of the Alta Java coffee shop to an Alta Ski Shop tune center, and exterior changes to complement the rugged landscape and natural elements of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The exterior changes include avalanche shutters constructed from locally sourced pinewood, a handful of new café tables using repurposed timber, and hand-hewn blocks of granite rock to insulate the building’s foundation.

Alta is set to wrap up this multi-year project in the coming months, with the new Albion Day Lodge expected to open its doors on the 2026-27 season’s (to-be-determined) opening day. 

Ballroom Traverse and High Traverse Projects

Both the Ballroom Traverse and High Traverse runs are undergoing their third summer of hand-cutting and widening to optimize access to some of Alta’s best powder terrain. Ballroom’s widening will be subtle, helping reduce early choke points and wind erosion, and High Traverse’s widening will “provide a dependable and accessible traverse to the grassy slopes of Greeley Bowl during periods of low snow.”

“As we experienced during the 2025–26 season, these hand-cut traverses will hold more snow earlier in the season and during periods of increased skier traffic or when the snowpack is affected by extended periods of high pressure or wind erosion,” Alta wrote in its summer project announcement. 

Traverses typically act as major choke points at resorts due to their narrow geometry and their necessity for accessing fresh powder at resorts. By widening two of its popular traverses, Alta can get more skiers on the runs without skier traffic building up near its popular powder stashes.

Other On-Mountain Projects

Alongside widening the Ballroom Traverse and High Traverse, Alta is making some additional on-mountain changes to its terrain and operations. These changes include replacing aging snowmaking lines between Watson Shelter and the Corkscrew ski run to help the resort’s snowmaking systems “remain efficient in terms of energy and water use.”

The resort will also regrade the Big Dipper ski run near the newly aligned Supreme lift to improve early-season grooming and coverage. 

Base Area Infrastructure Projects

Alta’s summer projects and upgrades this summer finish up at the base areas, the home bases for skiing Alta’s magic powder. 

On the Albion side, the north end of the parking lot will hold a new dry storage facility. Alta plans to eventually use the new facility to replace its down-valley storage facility, eliminating the need to make trips back and forth in the Salt Lake Valley.

Electricity provider Rocky Mountain Power will be burying power lines in the Town of Alta along Summer Road and within Albion Basin. 

The summer upgrades end with a small expansion of the Wildcat Parking Lot and the addition of a year-round public bathroom near the Grizzly Gulch trailhead commonly used by backcountry skiers and hikers. 

With the 2026-27 season just over the horizon, Alta’s summer projects are bringing some alluring new features for winter guests. Upgraded lodging, wider runs, more parking, and new bathrooms all contribute to making sure each skier is comfortable at the resort. As summer and Alta’s projects wrap up, skiers visiting one of Utah’s powder havens can enjoy more than just the snow.