UPDATE: The Utah Department of Transportation says Little Cottonwood Canyon is expected to reopen Saturday at noon.
ALTA, Utah - Hundreds of people are being told to stay indoors by the Alta Ski Patrol because of high avalanche risks.
"All yesterday and last night and so far today we're interlodged and we can’t go outside," Alta resident Kevin Dennis told FOX 13 over a video chat. "If you live up here, you just have to love weather. You have to appreciate how powerful it can be, and roll with it... at some level, it is fun."
Across town, Mike Pruett is visiting with his family and he too is trapped inside.
Pruett has been visiting Alta every 5th week of the year for the past 33 years.
"We’ve had a lot of years where there’s not very much snow," Pruett said "This is a year unlike any other with the snow... closed... locked in."
Pruett told us they were let outside for a little while yesterday to swim, but other than that, "iIt’s been a lot of TV and watching everyone outside be real cold and work real hard to get us and get everything cleared off to keep us safe."
As for Dennis, he is experiencing much of the same.
"I do have three guests who are not from here, and I think we’re still speaking to each other," he said. "We’ve been reading, and we watched a movie last night and we did turn our dining room table into a ping pong table this morning so that’s kept us busy."
As for people's food storage, those we talked to were still doing OK — although Dennis had run out of half-and-half, and Mike Pruett had run out of "certain beverages."
Alta ski patrol will continue to reassess when it is safe for those to come back outside and travel down Little Cottonwood Canyon.
