This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Alta • During Onno Wieringa's first 10 days on the job for the Alta ski patrol, major dumps piled up 4 feet of fresh snow on the mountain.
"That's a pretty good way to run a ski area," he jokingly recalled thinking to himself back in November 1972 as a 22-year-old out of Montana.
Sixteen years later, Wieringa was running Alta, a responsibility and honor he's had for the past 29 years, one that ended last month with the completion of the 2016-17 season.
As he noted, "a lot of snow has fallen" in the 44 years he's spent in the inspirational setting of upper Little Cottonwood Canyon, decades that saw even old-school Alta make major technological strides, from putting a bend in the Collins lift that rises to Germania Ridge and installing a "magic carpet" at Supreme to forming the "Altabird" partnership with the resort's once-bitter rival: neighboring Snowbird.
But those are merely cosmetic changes, Wieringa insisted during an interview last week in Alta's skier services building, enough wet snowflakes falling to obscure his view of High Rustler, just like when he arrived in 1972.
"Alta hasn't changed," he said. "Our infrastructure is better. We changed a few lifts and buildings and got some new technology, but Alta itself hasn't changed. It still has great terrain. It still has great snow. It's still a beautiful setting. So it hasn't changed."
On a three-minute video commemorating his time at Alta, Wieringa described how he quickly learned the importance of a light touch from his predecessor, Chic Morton.
"Chic Morton always used to talk about the soul of Alta," he said. "It all emanates with the mountains and the snow. Our company is just a conduit. Companies don't make soul."
Having grown up here, Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty said Wieringa has a special place in his heart for the way he's managed to keep Alta as it is through his lifetime.
"[Onno Wieringa] always had an eye focused on keeping skiing fun rather than the business aspect of selling more lift tickets and making money," Rafferty said. "In today's world of consolidation and big corporate skiing — which has its place — it's nice to have a place like Alta that is all about the skiing."
Like Wieringa, Snowbird President Bob Bonar came to Little Cottonwood Canyon in 1972. In the years since then, they've collaborated on issues of importance to both resorts, such as canyon transportation and avalanche control.
"Through his experience with ski patrol and his snow-safety work, Onno really became an industry leader in avalanche control and the use of military weapons and explosives," Bonar said. "Onno's one of the top guys."
So it seemed only right that for his send-off, Wieringa's Alta colleagues gave him an engraved casing from a 105mm howitzer, the artillery piece used to knock down avalanches so skiers can safely access runs from Ballroom to Devil's Castle.
Another treasured parting gift is an engraved slice of wood taken from a felled Alta tree a foot in diameter. It pays tribute to his efforts to establish the Alta Environmental Center.
"Onno took care of the mountain to a new level," said resort spokeswoman Connie Marshall, an Alta employee for as long as Wieringa.
Not all of his ideas went over well. He caught plenty of flak for proposals to put a lift up Flagstaff Mountain across the road from Alta's base, and to extend a gondola from Germania Ridge to Mount Baldy.
Wieringa shrugged it off.
"There were differences of opinion," he understated.
Alta's relationship with Snowbird remains highly competitive, he said, but it's in everyone's best interest if the two resorts cooperate on various ventures.
"When the weather's on, everything that happens in this canyon is better off if we approach it as Alta and Snowbird together," Wieringa said. "The earlier generation didn't get along. But our generation didn't take very long to start getting along better and, in 2001, we put together the Altabird ticket and figured everyone should have the cool ability to cruise around 4,700 acres of the greatest skiing around."
Wieringa is turning the mountain over to another Alta veteran, Michael Maughan. In a few weeks, Wieringa and his wife, Tana, will return to their Montana roots to do ... whatever.
"I don't think I have too much of a plan," the 67-year-old Wieringa conceded in the farewell video. "I'm going to finish the circle … and live out the 30 to 40 years I have left."