The Problem- Recreation
Recreationists of all other kinds will be negatively impacted while in-resort skiers and Alta and Snowbird will reap the benefits of our tax-payer funded gift.
Recreation
People enjoy many types of recreation in LCC, not just skiing at Alta and Snowbird. The gondola or road widening prioritizes skiing at these two resorts over hiking, trail running, mountain biking, rock climbing, backcountry skiing and any other activities for which we love LCC. Destroying the canyon with massive infrastructure will ruin the beauty people go to LCC to see.
In the summer: running the gondola during the summer is next to pointless even for people recreating at the top of the canyon. As of now mountain bikes will not be allowed on the gondola, rendering this “preferred alternative” useless to mountain bikers. If a hiker, rock climber, camper, trail runner etc. were to contemplate driving a car or taking the gondola they would decide that taking the least amount of time and using a gallon of gas (modestly assuming the car’s mpg is less than 20) outweighs buying a gondola ticket and spending 27-37 minutes getting to the resorts from the mouth of the canyon, and still these options for transportation are only relevant for people recreating at Snowbird or Alta.
Both plans involve a toll to drive a personal vehicle or taking the gondola/bus. The resorts will pay for their season pass holders to freely take either transit option (if they give their money to the resorts by buying a ski pass). Backcountry users will face a fine to use the canyon. They will be forced to pay because this traffic problem, which is a problem because of the resorts, will require them to pay.
Bouldering within LCC will be significantly impacted. The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance (SLCA) has posted information on the destruction of boulders with UDOT’s two proposals. The gondola or road widening will destroy 142 or 131 bouldering problems, respectively. UDOT’s LCC EIS presentation states that the gondola will be less impactful to bouldering, but this is not true based off of SLCA’s analysis. Other climbing locations in LCC which may not be physically destroyed by construction but these climbing locations will suffer from an increase in noise and severe visual impacts due to the gondola or widened S.R. 210.