This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In real time, we are literally watching Alta drift from being a ski area with a soul to being another uninspiring, money-making resort. In the late 1990s, The New York Times published an article about Alta entitled, "Earning It: A Ski Area Without Extremes," that praised Alta for focusing on quality and environmental stewardship. The article described Onno Wieringa, Alta's longtime general manager, turning excess cars away and firmly handing each driver a note that read "We are sorry you will be unable to ski Alta today. If we were to permit more skiers on the mountain it would compromise the quality of the experience skiers have learned to expect from us."
That was 15 years ago. Alta Ski Resort has now submitted a long list of 12 proposed "projects" outlined in their master development plan that is now being considered by the U.S. Forest Service. It's an exceedingly long list that promises to have big impacts on the aesthetic beauty of our Wasatch Mountains. Since virtually all of Alta Ski Resort sits on Forest Service property, the citizens of the Wasatch need to make our voices heard!
Among Alta's proposed plans are replacing the legendary Wildcat chair lift with a high capacity/high speed lift, expanding their mountain restaurant, and constructing — at what is the top of our watershed — an artificial 8 million gallon lake for snowmaking that measures in at 300 feet by 250 feet and 20 feet deep. The "lake" will also demand digging a 1,600 foot long trench to facilitate utility lines to snowmaking machines. Talk about impacting Flora!
As if those projects and the approximately 10 others contained in the proposal weren't enough, Alta wants to destroy the aesthetic beauty and solitude of Mount Baldy by building a tram from Germania Pass to near the summit of this iconic peak. Alta has the gall to suggest that the tram to Baldy, capable of transporting 150 people per hour, is being done primarily for the purposes of avalanche control!
Orwell, meet Alta, where ecosystem disrupting artificial reservoirs are named Flora and where avalanches are best controlled by using high speed trams to ferry skiers unwilling to earn their turns up to rugged avalanche prone terrain.
The impacts of Alta's proposal won't be limited to just the winter ski season. Many of their proposed projects stand to profoundly affect summer visitors to the Wasatch as well.
As a climber who's spent as much time summiting peaks in the summer as I do skiing in the winter, it's beyond dismaying to see the Alta proposal for Gazex exploders intended for avalanche control. Alta's proposal includes the construction of up to 24 Gazex exploders accompanied by six permanent storage buildings measuring 8 by 8 feet each along the majestic Devil's Castle and other unique summits.
Alta has definitely turned away from its 75-year history of being a ski area with a heart and soul.
The Forest Service is accepting public comments until May 26. Do your part to save Mount Baldy by emailing your comments to the Forest Service at comments-intermtn-uwc@fs.fed.us. Or learn more and view Alta's proposal at http://www.saveourcanyons.org
Mount Baldy doesn't belong to Alta; it's Forest Service property that belongs to all of us. Powder hounds and all of us who care about our mountains need to make our voices heard!
Tom Lund is a board member of Save Our Canyons and has been skiing Alta with his family for more than two decades.