Winter weekends of my childhood were spent at Alta, where my dad was a ski instructor for 30 years. Sitting amongst the old timers in the ski school locker room, I listened to countless discussions about how to fix the problem of getting people safely up and down Little Cottonwood Canyon. That was more than four decades ago.
Fast forward to 2023, and the conversation about the perilous drive up the canyon persists because Little Cottonwood Canyon is different from any other canyon in the nation. The problem of putting thousands of vehicles on a steep, two-lane road with one of the highest avalanche hazard indexes in North America has only intensified with Utah’s population growth.
This past winter highlighted the urgent need for improved mobility and safety for our guests and employees. Over the course of the season, 98 avalanches hit the canyon road (SR 210). The canyon closed overnight 42 times leaving employees, visitors and residents trapped at the top and thousands of people waiting at the bottom to come up, creating gridlock in surrounding communities. One way in and one way out is a safety issue that has proved dangerous time and time again.
(Utah Department of Transportation) UDOT workers use a bulldozer to clear off State Route 210 through Little Cottonwood Canyon on April 13, 2023. The agency had to close the canyon completely for eight days in an 11-day stretch at the beginning of April 2023 because of high avalanche danger.
However, we now have a path forward that addresses most of the challenges presented by the canyon’s dramatic topography and prolific snowfall. UDOT’s decision to build a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon is the safest, cleanest and most efficient way for Utahns and visitors alike to enjoy this precious resource that sits in our backyard providing world-class, year-round recreation and the water many of us drink.
Access to our canyons for all Utah families is imperative for the next generation, and a gondola system allows for the responsible management of that access year-round. It protects the watershed, wildlife and land, while offering travel reliability. It protects Mount Superior through Snowbird’s commitment to a conservation easement for its private land that preserves this iconic mountain.
UDOT’s process has been exhaustive over the last five years, with more public comments than any other UDOT EIS before. I applaud their efforts to consider every option and think beyond roads with a focus on long-term, innovative, effective transportation solutions for the canyon so many of us love. People care about this canyon and there has never been a more robust, detailed and deliberate process to consider how best to serve the community and protect this revered place.
Today, as we begin a new chapter of the canyon’s history, the opportunities of how to make a gondola a reality can begin. That includes exploring ways to partner with UDOT to help pay for and maintain a new system. It includes looking at what works and what doesn’t during the next few years of phased implementation. I am excited about the thoughtful process outlined by UDOT.
Utah is following the lead of communities around the world that are building gondolas not for novelty, but as clean, effective transportation systems. This decision continues Utah’s legacy of collaboration to find solutions. Riding a Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola will be an unforgettable experience that catapults Utah to the forefront of innovative transportation for a growing Utah population.
Dave Fields, Snowbird
Dave Fields is president and general manager of Snowbird.