The projects and their effects on the Wasatch backcountry:

A link to the 4.5mb pdf version of this map.

1) SkiLink – a proposed gondola connecting the Canyons ski resort with Solitude which relies on a congressional bill to force the sale of public lands to Talisker, a private Canadian developer.
Lost backcountry:

• ALL of Bear Trap Fork
• USA Bowl
• Wilson’s Hill (ironic considering Ted Wilson’s involvement)

Talisker winds up for the blow while Solitude (red cape), Alta and Snowbird watch from the wings.

2) Grizzly Gulch – Alta is expected to announce their plans to build this lift any day now. They own this property, but I wonder if they will give up any of the Forest Service land they are currently leasing in return?  Doubtful. Basically this will give a private company, Alta Ski Lifts Inc. complete control over all of upper Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Lost backcountry:

• Patsy Marley
• Grizzly Gulch
• Grizzly Gulch trailhead
• Michigan City
• Davenport Hill
• Direct access into East Bowl of Silver Fork
• Twin Lakes Pass
• Wolverine Cirque
• All of the Emma Ridge

3) Flagstaff – Didn’t this proposal to put a chairlift from the town of Alta up the Flagstaff ridge die?  Ha.  Hardly. Putting in this chairlift would mean that everything from Snowbird, all the way to to and through Alta, over the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, down the Emma Ridges and over to the Our Lady of the Snow chapel would be off limits for uphill traffic, ie, skinning.
Lost backcountry:

• Days Fork
• Silver Fork
• Holy Toledo
• Toledo Bowl
• Flagstaff trailhead (possibly the most popular TH in the Wasatch)

A photo taken from the top of Silver Fork showing the proposed Alta Flagstaff lift with Days Fork directly below in and Cardiac Bowl directly behind. The south side skiing from this lift would be marginal and it would turn most everything in this photo into slackcountry.

4) American Fork Twin Tram – Snowbird wants to put a tram from the top of their existing Hidden Peak tram to the top of the highest peak in the Wasatch, American Fork Twin.
Goodbye to:

• Birthday chutes
• Tri Chutes
• Columbine
• Upper White Pine drainage

5) Silver Fork – Solitude tried to expand into Silver Fork a few years ago and was denied.  This is nothing a lobbyist can’t fix with a congressional bill and few paid off politicians.
Lost Backcountry:

• The Meadow Chutes – all of them
• Upper Silver Fork drainage
• Silver Fork trailhead

6) Jupiter Lift – This is a proposed lift connecting the base of Brighton to the top of the Jupiter lift in the Park City Mountain Resort.
Lost Backcountry:

• Mill F East Fork
• Guardsman’s Pass
• Great Western trail

7) 10420 – Sharing a base with the lift above, this would extend Brighton’s reach to Peak 10,420.
Lost Backcountry:

• Everything to the north of Brighton all the way to Mill F East Fork

8) Solbrite – After you have ridden the Gizzly Gulch chair to the top of Black Bess/Davenport and then skied down the Twin Lakes Pass sidecountry, how are you going to get back to Alta?  The SolBrite lift, which will take you from Twin Lakes Reservoir back up to the top of Solitudes Summit chair.
Lost Backcountry:

• What was left of Twin Lakes Pass

9) Cardiff Fork – WTF?!! Yes, there is an odd-shaped piece of private property in Cardiff Fork that would allow a chairlift to be placed diagonally across Georges Hill, through the lower part of the Ivory Flakes and Cardiac ridge and then terminate near the bottom of Cardiac Bowl.
Lost backcountry:

• Cardiac bowl
• Cardiac Ridge
• Ivory flakes
• Georges

Cardiac Bowl in Cardiff Fork.

If you haven’t fainted by now, you will probably be wondering exactly what will be left for backcountry skiing in the Wasatch. The answer is, the Wilderness Areas and a few table scraps.  The rest of it will be either directly consumed by ski resorts or turned into slackcounty/side country ala Scotties Bowl or Dutch Draw.  One of the bigger issues with these expansions is that they wipe out a majority of the safe terrain options which are essential for beginning touring or during high avalanche danger days. Not only that, they will pump tons of unprepared skiers into the sidecountry, which leads to avalanche fatalities like the one last week at the Canyons ski resort.

What to do?  Get pissed off, then get involved.  Write and harass elected officials as much and as often as possible. Boycott expansionist resorts and spread the word for others to do so as well.  Attend public meetings and speak up.  Twenty years from now, when lifts tickets are $200 per person per day and the resorts are filled with empty high speed quads and the corporate owners are still wondering why Utah still can’t compete with Colorado, it will be too late.
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Main Baldy from the Rustler Lodge (?) parking lot. It is the righthand line line and is continuous, although in this photo an arete blocks part of it.

Main Baldy is a natural snow trap and is one of the first places to get snow, as well as one of the last to lose it.  It is high, north facing and gets lots of up-canyon windloading, and the deep sidewalls help hold and protect the snow.  Plus, it has a very skiable angle to it and is wide enough to hold lots of tracks.  The adjoining Little Chute and Dogleg Chute are technically harder, but not quite as classic as Main.

Main Baldy has a ton of history to it, including some gruesome rumor about a skier who supposedly fell down it and beheaded herself, which may be urban legend. But, I do know for sure about a group of  friends who were skiing it in the summer and had a horrific accident.  From what I remember, one skier was stopped, when another skied down on top of him, blew his last turn and took both of them out.  Seeing this from the top, a third skier went to help them, blew a turn and ended up going down as well.  The chute itself is plenty steep, but to make matters worse, all three of them tracked down and ended up getting pinballed in the moat/gully where the snow had pulled away from the side of the chute. I think there were punctured lungs, maybe some broken bones and lots and lots of stitches.

The Main Baldy summer moat. Uggggh - this would be a grim place to end up after a cartwheeling fall down 500+ feet of steep couloir.

This year Main Baldy is amazingly full and still has about 6-8′ of snow in it!  I skied it today on a gear testing mission and it is still in excellent shape with very few rocks.  Not only that, but it has been skied enough that is is kind of pre-groomed.

Main Baldy - from the top, with feeling on Aug 10th.

I’m guessing there is enough snow that it is easily going to make it all the way through the summer.
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I first heard of this line from Lorne Glick who was driving cats at Alta at the time.  He skied it with John Whedon (skiing is actually a very relative term with The Ribbon…) and said that it was named Ciochetti’s Ribbon after Dave Ciochetti, an Alta Patroller who is not only credited with the first descent, but also brought along his girlfriend as a partner.  I probably would have put this off for a few more years/decades, except Courtney Phillips pointed out that I wasn’t doing anything tomorrow afternoon, so we should do it ASAP.  Thanks for the motivation Court!

The Ribbon is a 100% full-on blend of skiing and rock climbing as you need to belay each pitch and not only place protection for yourself, but your partner as well.  There is really no advantage or disadvantage to leading or following as both skiers face the same fall potential.  The rock is tricky to get gear in, especially if you underestimate the endeavor and bring a skimpy rack like we did.  Super bad idea!

We swapped out the pitons for a #2 Camalot and this was all we brought. Double this amount of gear would have been, uhmmm, helpful.

Getting started on The Ribbon is dangerously easy – you skin up the Devil’s Castle apron, wrap around the back and boom – there it is!  Much to our amazement, there were another set of tracks in there already.

The entrance. This is one of the easier parts of the traverse.

Courtney approaching the crux of the traverse, which is that section of scattered rocks. As we didn't have the right gear, I ended up climbing over the top of it instead of taking the low traverse around, which looked almost totally void of snow.

The entire outing entails 2,800′ of climbing and skiing.  As it faces due north and is about as high as you can get in the Wasatch, the snow was still soft and fluffy on the traverse.

There are a variety of potential exits to The Ribbon, but we were able to continue traversing around the entire wall until we connected with the Devil's Castle Couloir. In this photo, Courtney is skirting some cliffs right before merging into the lower couloir.

Done! Fresh, fluffy powder never felt so good.

This was one of two lines in The Chuting Gallery which I hadn’t skied, so one down, one to go!  I’m saving the last one for an outing with Noah Howell, who is just about to tick them all himself.

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Skiing Main Baldy in August usually only happens after a big snow season.  Years ago, a group of 4-5 skiers were skiing it just for the novelty of skiing in August when one of them slipped, fell and slid head-first into the rocky moat next to the snow.  A second skier somehow fell and was soon joined by a third falling skier as well.  Bones were broken, skulls were scalped, ribs were cracked and lungs were punctured before they were finally evacuated by AirMed. 

I had forgotten what a rubble pile Alta is in the summer.  Even the access road, which is a cruiser in the winter, was loose, dusty and steep on a mountain bike.  By far, the most gripping part of the day was down-climbing through the loose talus on a pair of skis with binding which were barely engaged! 

Still, it was a fun outing, although I wasn’t going back for seconds.

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