At Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge, we are continuously impressed with the dedication and customer service provided by the team at Alta Shuttle. We sat down with Tom Schneider to get the scoop and learn what keeps Alta Shuttle rolling year after year.
An Alta vacation is so much more than just skiing and sleeping. Thankfully, in Alta, we have a few great community partners that help to complete the experience allowing us to focus on what we do best – providing you with comfortable lodging and creative culinary delights just steps from the greatest snow on earth. This fall, we are introducing you to a few partners we couldn’t live without.
Today, we’d like to share the story of Alta Shuttle because getting to the mountain may be one of the most critical components of your trip.
Alta Shuttle started in 1993 as a spinoff from Canyon Transportation by Robert Reyes, affectionately known as “Big Bob.” Big Bob had been in the transportation business in Little Cottonwood Canyon since the late 70s / early 80s and started to realize that the Alta guest would benefit from a service created to cater to the Alta skier.
We sat down with Tom Schneider to get the scoop and learn what keeps Alta Shuttle rolling year after year. Tom joined the Alta Shuttle family when he married Bob’s daughter Melissa. After college, Tom and Melissa moved to LA to begin their careers. Tom taught in a Los Angeles high school, but after fourteen years, the couple decided it was time for a break, so they returned home for the winter of 04/05 to help run the company. In 2005, Bob passed away leaving Tom and Melissa to take over management of the company.
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At Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge, we are continuously impressed with the dedication and customer service provided by the team at Alta Shuttle. The family run business currently has three generations working in the business. Melissa runs the office, Melissa’s mom, Martha, still works in the office, all four of Martha and Bob’s daughters work for Alta Shuttle, son-in-laws and grandchildren have all spent their time in the business as well.
While the Alta Shuttle is a family business at its core, it is a well-run transportation company with 20 vehicles, 15 of which are 4-wheel drive. In the height of the winter season, they employ 32 employees.
The whole point of Alta Shuttle is to get people to and from Alta no matter the weather conditions. In a place like Alta this can be a little tricky. Not many destinations have road closures communicated at 4:30 a.m. When Alta Shuttle receives a closure notice is when they truly shine as the company rises to the occasion waking drivers and getting them up the canyon to pick up visitors scheduled for departure that day.
As always, we wanted to get a little personal and find out what about Alta speaks to Tom, who grew up in Big Cottonwood Canyon skiing Solitude. When he and Melissa returned to Utah and began working at Alta Shuttle, Tom hadn’t spent much time in Alta. He quickly fell in love with a type of first tracks some of us shutter at the thought of, first tracks in the van with 12” of snow at 4 a.m. Tom shares that it was these first tracks mornings that began his love affair with Alta. More than a decade later, Tom adds the lack of commercialization, development, and distractions to his love list with Alta combined with the people.
As we know, Alta is about the mountains; it is about the skiing. Alta is about the people, all of us. It is about the community tables and the individuals who travel to Alta alone, yet they are never alone. They are not meeting their home friends, but their Alta friends whom they’ve met over the last 30 years of skiing. They are adults meeting friends they met as children in Alta Ski School. They are traveling to Alta to bond with four generations of their family with family members from 3 – 80.
A trip to Alta is often a repeat trip, and the same can be said of the Alta Shuttle guest. 70-80% of riders have ridden before. Maybe it is because once you visit Alta you realize you don’t need a car. The ski shop is right there, the food is right there, the lift is right there.
The Alta Shuttle doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to their love for the Alta community. They give 2% of their winter revenue to Friends of Alta for all of Alta trips.
We are so fortunate to have Alta Shuttle as a partner to serve the Alta guest. It is their commitment to transportation that adds to the complete Alta experience.