ALTA — They're digging out at the Alta Peruvian Lodge. Again. Every four or five years or so this happens. A storm blows through, dumps 3 or 4 feet of Alta powder, and the next thing anybody knows there's 300 or 400 feet at — and sometimes in — the Peruvian.
Everyone wants to stay here. Including the avalanches.
The latest room-crasher was last Thursday morning, around 8 a.m., when Alta's avalanche control aimed its 105 millimeter gun at south-facing Toledo Bowl and fired. The avalanche that was sprung loose was a tad more than anyone bargained for. It tore off down the bowl in a southeasterly direction, hit a ravine just before the highway, veered south and surfed smack into the east parking lot and east wing of the Peruvian Lodge, where the lodge stopped it.
If any guests had been in rooms 48, 49 and the suite in 50 they would have had a real cold, real wet wake-up call.
But by the time the avalanche hit, all guests were in the center of the lodge observing what is known as "Maximum Interlodge."
Maximum Interlodge is when everyone is moved to the middle of the lodge before they start shooting down avalanches. Just in case.
It's rare, but every once in a while a big one crosses the highway and hits the lodge. Before Thursday, the last big one was in 1998. That one knocked out the lodge transformer and all the power along with it. Thursday's avalanche was about as big but didn't knock out any power, although it did wipe out a fire escape and about 14 cars and trucks, including an Oldsmobile Cutlass that wound up on its top, its insides packed with snow tighter than a snowcone.
According to Todd Collins, the lodge's general manager, the guest who owned the Cutlass wasn't as upset as you might think.
"He looked at all the fresh powder," said Collins, "shrugged and went skiing."
You might be wondering what a lodge with a capacity of about 150 is doing sitting in an avalanche path in the first place. But that's part of the Peruvian's charm. It was built before people thought much about such things, dating back to its grand opening in 1948.
The summer before, several wooden World War II army hospital barracks had been moved 90 miles from Brigham City to the entrance of Alta, where they were plopped down, welded together and christened a ski lodge. The barracks have been here ever since, with periodic upgrades such as a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a ski shop and a new entrance.
A loyal clientele has developed through the years comprised of people who like the ambience of a real skier's lodge where the price of the room includes meals and a lift ticket and where the walls are dotted with scenes of skiers, mountains, powder shots and, it should be noted, more than one avalanche.
One of the first pictures you see when you step into the lodge lobby is a nice three-photo sequence of a wild avalanche cascading down the face of Mount Superior just west and a little north of the lodge.
Down the hall is footage of a spectacular avalanche rumbling down the Hellgate slide area even farther to the west.
And next to these is a framed letter on official Town of Alta stationery that reads: "Notice: Interlodge Closure." The letter details the town's rules that call for lodge guests to stay indoors and away from windows during avalanche gunning and to move to the center of the lodge during Maximum Interlodge.
At the Alta Peruvian, no one can say they never saw it coming.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.