So, instead, a dozen or so outdoorspeople spent a snowy, windy Sunday exploring the increasingly powdery terrain off the High Traverse and Supreme lift, directed to sweet spots by the knowledgeable guys from Alta-based Alaska Mountain Guides.
"With Alta as the alternative to Cat skiing, there's no Plan B. It's Plan A minus," quipped Drew Simmons, a spokesman for Kelty, a Boulder, Colo.-based manufacturer of outdoor gear from backpacks to tents and regular participant in Outdoor Retailer's winter and summer trade shows at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
Therein lies one of the main reasons Salt Lake City is an attractive site for Outdoor Retailer, whose two annual shows contribute $30 million to $35 million to the state's economy.
Within a short drive of the hotels filled with outdoor-industry people for the trade shows are top-notch recreational opportunities where the kinds of products promoted by companies can be put to use.
"We know that a lot of people who come to the shows extend their stays - a day or two at the beginning or the end - to ski in the winter or bike in the summer," said Scott Kaier, another Kelty spokesman. "We build products to do adventures like this."
It's one thing to have these products set up in nice displays in temporary booths inside the Salt Palace. It's another to have people such as Megan Michelson and Marc Peruzzi from Skiing magazine, or Outside's Grayson Schaffer and Stephen Regenold from GearJunkie.com, putting them to use in natural conditions.
"At the show, you're kicking tires. Here, you're using it," said Kelty marketing manager Christian Mason. "It's pretty easy to get the attention of some key media people when you offer a day of Cat skiing," which involves skiers riding in a Caterpillar-type vehicle with tank treads to steep backcountry locations and access to virgin powder.
Even if the weather proved too bountiful for Cat skiing on Sunday, the day of skiing brought together two local companies - Alta Ski Lifts and Alaska Mountain Guides - and four outside operations enticed here by Outdoor Retailer - Kelty and its partners, boot-maker Vasque from Minnesota; Climashield, a thermal insulation company based in Tennessee; and Icelandair, the airline of the small North Atlantic island off the coast of Greenland.
Icelandair has been participating in the trade shows for three years now, said marketing manager Melissa Andretta, largely because 70 percent of the country's visitors come to experience nature and the outdoors.
"When you're the 101st largest airline in the world, you have to be creative," said Andretta, describing Outdoor Retailer trade shows as a "back-door way to get into the industry and to make connections with the kind of people likely to want to come to Iceland."
Throughout last week's Winter Market, Kelty and its partners engaged in product giveaways, part of a broader public campaign promoting an Iceland Adventures Sweepstake, a most-expenses paid trip to Iceland.
The symbol of the campaign is a Viking named "Kjelty Backpackerson" who uses Kelty products in outdoor activities. Kelty created a Web page for him - www/myspace.com/kjeltytheviking - to give the public opportunities to win company products by "dressing as a Viking and posting pictures of themselves using Kelty products on field trips," said Simmons, who drew quite a few stares skiing in Viking garb.
For Darsie Culbeck of Alaska Mountain Guides, whose offices are in the building housing Albion Grill, the chance to partner with Kelty and the others helps spread word about his company's worldwide activities.
As he helped lead Sunday's tour of Alta, another company group was departing for Ecuador. During the year, it is involved in outdoor leadership schools that take students to Mexico and Alaska, as well as climbing trips to places such as Notch Peak in Utah's west desert and the Escalante area of southern Utah.
"We're into every kind of adventure program possible," he said, before donning telemark skis to take his media guests to a few of his favorite runs around the resort. "Alta is a big backdrop for building relationships. Sharing a day in the backcountry with a business partner is a cool way to forge lasting friendships."
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* MIKE GORRELL can be reached at mikeg@sltrib.com or 801-257-8734. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
