Solitude's fate settled!

On June 20, the new Alterra Mountain Company announced it would purchase Solitude Mountain Mountain Resort in Utah, growing the company to 13 destinations throughout North America, including Canada's CMH heli-skiing.

My guess is that after unsuccessfully trying to sell Solitude with Deer Valley, its owners Stearns and Penske, not knowing what to do with that small, challenging resort simply threw the towel and chose to unload it to Alterra rather than having to run it themselves. Alterra probably didn't pay much, if at all for this last acquisition, and it might be possible that the sellers will be bringing some money at closing to sweeten the deal.

There seem to be nothing strategic about Alterra's purchase: Solitude, just 34 miles from Salt Lake City airport is fairly small with only 8 lifts, 77 runs and three bowls spread over 1,200 acres for a 2,047 feet vertical drop. It is and will remain a challenge to turn it from local resort into full-fledged destination resort with a tiny village and limited accommodations.

What is interesting is what will become of Brighton, its next door neighbor. Adjacent to Park City Mountain, it could be a logical and strategic high altitude extension of the resort owned by Vail, but Boyne Mountain, Brighton's parent company already has accords with Alterra through its Ikon pass involving Big Sky.

Time will tell, but the merger mania is currently so fluid that we might know sooner than later...