Funny, I read a book by a guy on the US National cross country ski racing
team who lived in Salt Lake City, and remember it saying that one of his
favorite places to ski during training season was Alta.

Terje Mathisen wrote
. . . neither Alta nor Snowbird have any xc skiing worth mentioning!

I seem to remember that XC ski racer book mentioned the Baldy Chute at Alta.
I took my XC skis to Alta, and it has some nice steep trails, but I could
never figure out what lift went to that one. Has anybody tried it?

The powder in Utah otoh is very nice, even though
it does require lifts to get any serious amount of skiing. :-(

Yes, it's better if the Norwegians skiing in Utah use the required lifts.

Ken