My take on Mountain Accord

Mountain Accord is that public process that I discussed recently and is intended to provide a framework for the future of Utah's central Wasatch region.

At this early stage of the project, comments are invited and the following is the gist of my thoughts about it. In a nutshell, my feeling is that the “One Wasatch” ski resort interconnect project is woefully missing from that plan.

It is in fact “the elephant in the room” or even “the canary in the cold mine” if we look at it as a free test, as it can fully benefits each one of the four pillars of this plan: Environment, recreation, transportation and economy.

Further, interconnect resorts have been tested in the Alps for more than 40 years to the satisfaction of its visitors, its local population and its environment.

Environment: Many people staying in Park City ski Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons everyday. The availability of a ski connection would render any car trip unnecessary and would also allow folks living the Valley to ride the UTA transit system to any Cottonwood Canyon resort to get to Park City without using their car. Most importantly though, skiers have very little or no impact on the pristine mountain environment. Contrast this to, say snowmobile traffic, for example...

Recreation: The interconnect would add exponentially to the experience that both locals and visitors would receive when they ski our seven resorts without having to rely on vehicular transportation. The best things in life are experiences and opening up a small part of our Wasatch Mountain to winter recreation would expose more people, more dramatically to the beauty of our mountain environment and would elicit even more love and respect from everyone towards our magnificent nature.

Transportation: As said on the “Environment” section, vehicular traffic and need for extra parking would actually diminish with a working ski interconnect. A very compelling argument could be made to visitors for not renting a car. The net result would be enhanced traffic everywhere.

Economy: A ski interconnect would bring more destination visitors to Utah during during the mid-week period, maximizing the resorts capacity and providing an insurance that in spite of a receding snow cover, tourism business would continue to be good for Utah, making it a unique place in North America for its multi-resort experience.