Warm, overnight temperatures give way to a colder mass of air that brings moisture to Friday commuters looking forward to a waning work week. Lake-effect has kicked in and white powder begins to accumulate all afternoon and evening. Weather reports indicate that the storm will move out of the area around midnight with a projected accumulation of 12 to 15 inches throughout the Wasatch Range. Saturday will be cold but clear, sunny skies with light wind. Dreams that night are of a perfect bluebird day!
Then the nightmare begins. Having not skied Snowbird for a while, it became my ski area of choice for the day. Ah, the thought of making those silent turns on the mountain’s steeps kept me awake most of the night. It was not necessary to set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. since I seemed to glance at the digital display every hour from under the covers.
Snowbird is only 25 miles from my house and during offseason, it is only a 37-minute drive (yes, I had timed it), but this was a weekend winter day, and hordes of others would be clamoring to the slopes for those same first tracks I was seeking. Even though I had confidence that UDOT would be on top of their excellent job in clearing the roads there may still be a layer of snow or ice to contend with, and some inexperienced Californian’s might be in the mix of travelers.
Traffic was light along UT 215, though a good percentage exited with me on UT 210 up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Only a hint of sunlight greeted me as I drove east, but I could see that the sky was clear and every tree limb shouted at me, “Look what I caught last night!” I could not wait!
A third of the way up the canyon traffic stopped! I thought, perhaps it was only a delay to allow a snowplow to maneuver, but I knew better. The long train of vehicles inched forward. Thirty minutes later, on an incline, I held back a little to keep a slight forward momentum even though I knew that my Subaru could maneuver through it. This was ridiculous! Perhaps someone spun out and no one could get around them. Darn Californians!
Two hours from my departure I reached my destination, but it was evident that the parking lots were already full. Vehicles were parked everywhere on the sides of the road and hordes of skiers laden with gear were clamoring to reach the base area. What I experienced had become the norm for those seeking weekend respite and recreation on good snow days. I was still ready to ski. However, the thought of the afternoon trek down the mountain weighed upon me.
For decades various organizations, including One Wasatch and Mountain Accord, have been evaluating, setting up committees, debating, and holding public meetings in order to find a solution to solve the ever-increasing congestion within both Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons and every proposal has been met with heated opposition.
Proposals have run the gamut: providing extensive bussing with ample parking along East Bench; widen UT 210 to accommodate more vehicles; create a toll where the rate of charge would be based upon the number of occupants with the same graduation to be charged at the ski areas for parking; or a gondola. Most of the options have fallen to the wayside with the approval to install the world’s longest gondola (eight miles), from the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon to points between with an annex at the two ski areas.
In 2013 a collaborative group eventually created the Mountain Accord Chapter in 2015 to spearhead a genuine process to assess the mounting traffic problem. An EIS focused (or lost focus) to look only at the traffic within Little Cottonwood Canyon and it’s two ski areas, Snowbird and Alta. A record of decision of the EIS was issued on July 12, 2023, that recommended only Alternative B — the gondola alternative in a phased approach.
Phase 1: Start date, fall 2025. Improved bus service with mobility hubs, resort bus stops, toll booths and roadside parking restrictions. Cost: $240,000,000 (mostly funded)
Phase 2: Start date (TBD). Avalanche protection sheds, Wasatch Boulevard widening and trailhead improvements. (Cost and funding TBD: see Phase 3).
Phase 3: Start date (TBD). Gondola funding (TBD). Gondola: 35-person (1,050 per hour capacity), 8 miles long with 22 towers up to 250 feet tall to depart every two minutes from a base station near a new parking structure holding 2,500 parking stalls with an additional 1,000 stalls along Wasatch Boulevard. Canyon bus service ends. Phase 2 and 3 anticipated costs (not including inflation): $716,100,000.
Busing, though the focus of Phase 1 for the gondola, is problematic. Many ski areas across the country have tried to promote busing with limited success for a number of reasons. Large parking lots generally are needed to be constructed along the base of the mountain within or close to population centers. In this case would UDOT be the logical agency to own and operate the buses and parking lots? An additional fleet of buses would need to be purchased to accommodate frequent departures during heavy weekend travel that would also be affected by or dependent upon weather. These same buses would mostly sit idle during mid-week when snow cover or conditions are not “Utah perfect” and of course for at least seven months not belonging to winter.
Let’s face it, most skiers or boarders, especially families or car-poolers, prefer to bring their extra gear and clothes and even food in their cars to the resort to have available if the weather changes or for any other convenience. In addition, these scheduled buses will need to travel within the same traffic as passenger vehicles and therefore subject to the same traffic jams, not to mention having to include several stops along the way.
Widening 210 to two lanes each way within Little Cottonwood Canyon would be extraordinarily difficult and costly. Doubling the width of the entire roadway would have perhaps the greatest environmental impact unless several sensitive areas restrict travel to one lane each way. But the result of leaving any section unwidened would cause the widened sections to be ineffective in reducing congestion. Have you ever driven anywhere along Highway 15 south of Payson when, for construction or an accident, the two lanes are reduced to one? The bottleneck can back up traffic for miles.
Road tolls are good for generating revenue and can deter some from traveling alone in a car, but as more and more people come to Utah each year to live or to visit our slopes any reduction of vehicles due to increased carpooling will be outweighed by the ever-increasing demand within a few short years. The advent of Ikon and Epic passes have been a game changer and not part of the equation ten years ago when the committees first started evaluating options. In addition, where would these tollbooths be placed and manned to accommodate user fees? Will a transponder be mandatory to proceed up the road? How will visitors pay? It will likely be necessary to accept cash or credit cards, and if so, what sort of backup or gridlock”would this cause, not to mention the issues of such stopping at a toll both during inclement weather when roads are icy.
Funding for the “world’s longest gondola” is to be determined. However, due to the billion-dollar infrastructure investment, it will likely require public funding (taxes). Too bad that the gondola will not be in place until over a decade after the 2034 Olympics are concluded. The gondola may solve the congestion problem up Little Cottonwood Canyon for two ski areas (Snowbird and Alta), but what about Big Cottonwood Canyon and the demand upon Brighton and Solitude?
Only two lifts are needed to connect the two canyons and the four ski areas — problem solved!
OK, there is the rub: Many Utahans do not know that with only two additional lifts the entire back and front Wasatch resorts (seven in all) can be interconnected, traffic could mostly be self-regulating, and it would be virtually no cost to the public. In general, depending upon capacity and comfort, chairlifts cost about $3,000,000 and up to $7,000,000 for a quad. A standard gondola runs between $5,000,000 to $15,000,000. Therefore, the entire interconnect could be accomplished for around $30,000,000, all of which would be born upon the ski areas involved, not the public (taxes).
The interconnect proposal has been around for a couple of decades. One Wasatch spearheaded the effort that included several entities to pursue the feasibility of connecting the Park City resorts with the frontside Cottonwood Canyon’s resorts, allowing skiers to traverse the ridge between the “front and back.” With the merging of resorts in the Park City area and the ever-increasing traffic, it may make more sense now than before to connect all the areas.
Imagine Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, Solitude, Park City (including Canyons), Deer Valley, (now including Mayflower) all connected! Nowhere else in the United States is this kind of multi-resort connection physically possible except in Utah, and these are all mighty resorts! Not only could we tout “The Greatest Snow On Earth,” but possibly “The Greatest Ski Experience On Earth”! The economic boon to Utah could be phenomenal — beyond the “Big Five” promotion.
Countries blessed by the Alps in Europe have long experienced and enjoyed interconnect ski circuits. Trois Valless (France) and the Alberg region (Australia) are good examples, but perhaps the most noted is the Sella Ronda (Italy). The Sella Ronda ski circuit allows skiers to circumnavigate a mountain that includes major ski valleys and resorts. There are numerous points of entry to any of the resorts along mountain roads and traffic is not a major issue because it is “self-regulating.” If one resort tends to become overburdened with traffic, skiers shift to other access options and routes.
Outside of the two Cottonwood Canyons mountain routes, the backside is accessed by freeways 80 and 40. Additional trailheads, or base areas, adjacent to these routes are possible and a couple are already planned for backside expansions. The ever-increasing resort utilization, or travel congestion, over the next decades could be self-regulating if an interconnect were in place, just as it has been accomplished in the Alps.
Congestion would disperse throughout the region on a fluid day-by-day user adjustment. A skier or boarder would not need to be forced to go to a predetermined base area if that area tends to become traffic burdened if all the mountains were accessible from numerous points, front or back.
The Park City area resorts are already connected, either by purchase or by a mere rope that defines two areas. Snowbird and Alta are connected, as are Brighton and Solitude. Only two lifts in Grizzly Gulch (private land) would be needed to connect these four canyon ski resorts, something that would make the gondola more palatable. Only two additional lifts are necessary to connect the front canyon resorts with the back Park City resorts in the Guardsman area (also private land).
Only four low-profile lifts could interconnect the seven resorts back and front of the Wasatch: seven major resorts, two sides of a ridge, all within an hour of Salt Lake City and its newly rebuilt international airport.
These lifts could be restricted to only the winter interconnect on snow that has no ground disturbance or animal interference. Only lift maintenance would be necessary once the snow melts. No on-mountain facilities other than the lifts and their narrow corridors would be necessary.
There would be no billion-dollar tax burden on Utah’s residents as the lift corridors could be put into the affected ski resorts permitted area and the burden of lift construction would be upon them. There would be no need to construct large parking structures or huge parking lots at the edge of a residential community at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, or toll booths.
Perhaps, here in Utah, we are smart enough to not follow something like the California boondoggle of building a bullet train to and from nowhere at a cost that is double what voters approved and will need to be forever subsidized by taxpayers.
Salt Lake City has officially been selected to host the 2034 Olympics. The “world’s largest gondola” serving two resorts to be completed 10 years after the 2034 Olympics will not be worthy of mention. Should we not offer to the world unmatched access to numerous resorts boasting the “Best Snow on Earth,” all of which are interconnected to a beautiful and welcoming host, Salt Lake City?
Larry Christensen owned and operated a ski resort consulting firm that designed several dozen ski resorts throughout the West. He also was a freelance contributor of numerous ski articles published in several national magazines and local newspapers. He is now semi-retired.