On April 6, 2010, a SL Tribune article addressed concern about the new land bill by Alta Town and Alta Ski Lifts (ASL). The article goes on to state that the ‘town and ASL officials want to keep the chairlift option open for public safety reasons.’ It goes on to state that the current use of explosives is ‘dangerous’.

Some observations about this concern comes to mind. First, the safety record of avalanche control work in the area is nothing but state-of-the-art. It is effective and has an excellent safety record. It seems a little strange to imply that the public has not been safe for the past 50-60 years (artillery era). Second, a new weapon safe for overhead fire will likely be installed this year.

It seems that the ’safety’ card will be a popular argument against protection of Flagstaff Mountain in the new land bill. There are numerous alternatives to protecting the slopes above the road and Alta besides a chairlift. ‘Skier compaction’ buys no guarantee to eliminate avalanche risk. This is about ski-area expansion dressed in a coat of ’safety.’

Also, Solitude seems quite unhappy about potentially losing the option of expanding into Silver Fork. Solitude management stated ‘Having wilderness back up to business and communities is not really what it’s for.’ We at FOFM disagree with that assessment. That’s exactly what it’s for.

Lastly, BCC landowners are also apparently disgruntled. FOFM is aware of many property owners in BCC in favor of this bill. They are simply not as vocal as the organized opponents.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.