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Deer Valley, another Utah resort, and Mad River Glen in Vermont also ban snowboarding. Taos in New Mexico relented in 2009 and allowed the practice.

Skiers’ chief complaint is that snowboarders’ sideways stance leaves them with a blind spot that can make their wide, sweeping turns a danger to others on the slopes.

Some say the culture war is old news now young people are turning back to using a pair of skis, instead of one board.

“Snowboarding as a sport peaked a couple of years ago. It was counter-culture, but it became too mainstream,” said Riley Cutler, a partner at Wasatch Touring, a Salt Lake City ski shop. “Now kids are going back to skiing on twin tips and riding rails.”

News of the lawsuit lit up the websites of Utah newspapers, with passionate comments such as: Snowboarders “ruin all the snow” by scraping it down to ice; they “don’t watch where they’re going;” and they “stop in the middle of the hill and sit down! What’s up with that?”

David Quinney, a minority owner of Alta, said customers prefer to have the mountain kept for skiers only.

“Alta is forbidden fruit for snowboarders,” added Mr. Quinney, whose grandfather Joe Quinney founded Alta in 1939.

“The thing about Alta, so much of it involves hiking, climbing and traversing. That’s not real conducive to snowboarding.”

The thing about Alta, so much of it involves hiking, climbing and traversing. That’s not real conducive to snowboarding

In his view, the culture clash that separated skiers and snowboarders in the 1990s has become a cliché, and banning snowboarding remains a matter of safety, not style.