With all of the snowfall record talk this year at Alta I wanted to clarify things a little due to some confusion. The all time Alta ski resort record for snowfall has been smashed (800"+ and counting) this year with one month to go. The Alta ski resort snowfall season includes all snowfall between October 1st and April 30th at the Collins study plot which is at 9662' in elevation.
The all time season (includes all months) snowfall record for the town of Alta is 846.8" from the 1982-83 season. For this record the snowfall data was taken from a study plot at or near the current Alta guard study plot which is at 8799' in elevation.
This is just an educated guess but if someone had been around to measure snowfall at the Alta Collins study plot for the entire water year in 1982-83 and 1983-84 one or both could have topped 900".
Photo credit Jim Steenburgh.
