Alterra Mt. Co. isn’t just the Ikon Pass team—they’re redefining mountain adventure by connecting destinations and making the outdoors more accessible, fueling the stoke. After a couple years of elevating resorts more on the down low, CEO Jared Smith knew it was time to elevate the business with a brand refresh that matched their vision. That’s where we came in. With deep roots in the snowboarding scene, Metajive was a perfect fit to help bring Alterra’s next chapter to life.
Services
User Experience (UX)
Website Design
Design Systems
Interaction Design
CMS
Responsive Web Development
After stepping into his role as CEO, Jared Smith began working with his internal team to evolve the Alterra Mountain Company brand—shifting it from its strong association with the Ikon Pass and its action-sports focus toward a more profound, mission-driven identity. That’s where we came in. Our role was to collaborate with Jared and the team to help translate this new brand vision and further evolve it as we spun it into an engaging, forward-thinking online experience.
We started with a focused discovery sprint to nail down Alterra’s core mission: connecting mountains and making the outdoors accessible to everyone. With Jared’s packed schedule, we kept things efficient—weekly check-ins, bold ideas, clear options—so we could build trust and align fast without getting bogged down.
With the brand evolving in real time, we knew the traditional project approach would not work, so we brought Alterra into the process from day one. That open, early collaboration made us one team. We grounded everything in what makes mountain life special—killer photography, real people, and that top-of-the-run feeling—so the site feels as immersive as the mountains themselves.
The new Alterra brand is built on bold visuals that capture the scale and energy of the mountains. The tricky part? Making those images pop online without sacrificing accessibility. With huge contrast swings between snow and trees, we had to be selective and thoughtful about image and text choices—no dimming the magic just to meet the rules. We mapped the user flow to feel as natural as a mountain run, and used a shifting color palette that mimics moving through the terrain.
We approached Alterara’s site with a focus on elevating what already worked but also streamlining the codebase. Our discovery phase set the stage for consistency, while new features like Sanity deploy triggers and Netlify webhooks gave Alterara instant control over content updates. Dynamic storytelling came to life through video-ready modules, scroll-triggered animations, and horizontal scroll sections, transforming the site into an interactive, visually rich experience.
This site is built to be fully responsive, so it looks sharp and works smoothly on any device—desktop, tablet, or phone. No matter how you access it, the experience is seamless and visually spot-on.
Accessibility comes standard. The site follows ADA requirements and adheres to WCAG guidelines, making sure everyone can use and navigate with ease—no matter their ability.
We built a toolkit of flexible components and clear guidelines to keep every digital product on-brand, no matter who’s building it. This system lets our teams move fast, design smarter, and deliver a seamless experience—every single time.
For this project, we chose Sanity because it treats content as structured data, giving us the freedom to build a platform that’s fully custom and built to scale. This meant faster development for us, and for the client—a clean, collaborative dashboard that makes managing content a breeze.
We set up deploy hooks right in the Sanity dashboard, so Alterara can push updates for static content—like news and articles—without ever leaving their workflow. No more manual deploys in Netlify; just instant, seamless publishing straight from where the content lives.
We brought the site to life with GSAP ScrollTrigger, adding scroll-driven animations that keep users engaged. As you move through each page, images and elements scale, fade, and slide into place—making the whole experience feel dynamic and immersive.
Partner Feedback
From day one, we clicked with Jared and the team. That trust let us move fast and get real results. The first phase was such a win that they immediately pulled us into more projects. Since launch, the site’s gotten a ton of love, both inside Alterra and across all their resorts. It’s more than just a website now—it’s the heartbeat of the new brand. Authentic. Purposeful. And a true invitation for everyone to get out and find their adventure.
