The word “Interlodge” brings to mind images of a happy little snow village in the Alps somewhere (maybe my mind is confusing it with Interlaken, a real town in Switzerland). Well, it’s a bit more serious than that. Interlodge is the word for a shelter-in-place order in the town of Alta, Utah, when the avalanche danger is too high to even go outside.
Due to Little Cottonwood Canyon’s geography, 80 percent of the buildings in Alta are in avalanche slide paths (as well as Highway 210, the only road in and out). So when the town declares an Interlodge order, no one except for avalanche professionals performing avalanche mitigation work are allowed to go outside, even to travel from one building to another, with a $1,000 fine and six months in jail as a deterrent. However, waiting out an Interlodge order just might result in the best and least crowded skiing of your life. In February of 2021, the snowiest month at Alta in the past decade, the resort received over 100 inches of snow in a single week, causing a 60-hour Interlodge to take place. Catch the full story in the video above.
