Salt Lake City, UT – The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday lent its support to a growing movement to connect Park City area ski resorts with those in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons.
Salt Lake Chamber President and CEO Lane Beattie, former U.S. Sen. Jake Garn and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan will co-chair the Lift Utah Coalition, a group seeking to connect the ski resorts in Summit and Salt Lake Counties. Presently traveling from the Park City area resorts to the Cottonwood Canyons resorts requires a drive of 45 minutes to an hour on precipitous, avalanche-prone mountain roads, even though the resorts are geographically only separated by a few miles. Connecting the ski resorts in the Wasatch Mountains via other means has been studied for over 30 years and has the potential to create a unique ski experience unmatched by any in North America, proponents say. The challenge is to connect the resorts in a manner that advances Utah’s ski industry and protects the natural amenities, including wildlife and the watershed, that have garnered opposition to the proposal by environmental and civic groups.
Members of the coalition include managers of Canyons Resort and Solitude Mountain Resort, representatives from the Park City and Sandy City chambers, Zions Bank, Utah State Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, Park City attorney Gordon Strachen, The Boyer Company, Vacation Roost, Gaddis Investment, Ken Garff Automotive Group, Arbor Commercial, Ivory Homes, Maverik Co. and the Kimball Junction Association.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Salt Lake Chamber indicates that it supports the SkiLink proposal to connect Canyons Resort with Solitude Mountain Resort via a gondola lift crossing the Park City ridgeline, so long as it meets several specific criteria: a net positive effect on the environment, passing a rigorous local approval process, and consideration against other viable canyon transportation options.
“It is right that community leaders convene to consider options for ski resort connectivity,” the statement reads. “The Salt Lake Chamber will do its part in finding common ground for the common good so that we can connect selected ski areas in an economically and environmentally responsible manner.”
At the same time that the formation of the Lift Utah Coalition was being announced on Tuesday, approximately 40 members of the environmental advocacy group Save Our Canyons staged an opposition rally on the streets of Salt Lake City to protest the SkiLink proposal in front of the Salt Lake Chamber offices.
“Tomorrow morning an unholy alliance of developers, bankers, auto industry reps, oil and gas companies, and lawyers championed by the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce will hold a press conference at 9:15 a.m.,” the group wrote in its call for members to attend the protest. “The goal of this coalition will be to sell SkiLink as a viable venture both economically and environmentally. Gathering such support for SkiLink will set the stage for promoting future interconnection between ski resorts along the Wasatch. The be all, end all precedent for the ski industry’s domination of the Wasatch.”
Tuesday’s announcement regarding the formation of the Lift Utah Coalition is the region’s latest show of support for the SkiLink proposal. In February, the Utah State Senate passed a resolution stating that connecting the resorts via lifts, old mine tunnels or other means would boost the state’s economy while easing the ski industry’s effect on the Wasatch Mountain environment and provide safer travel between the resorts.