Why I believe "One Wasatch" is cool...

First, “One Wasatch” stands for the six-resort interconnect project for the Wasatch mountains of Utah. I've been looking for a Utah's ski interconnect ever since I moved to Park City, more than 30 years ago, because I've witnessed the birth of one, in the Alps, and can attest to the joy and fun it gave me, my friends, its users and the entire communities involved into building it and roaming through its endless space.

At the time, I was a ski instructor and loved to take my clients discover the “other sides” of the mountains and, believe me, with an interconnect, there are a multitude of them! This rich, “layered view” of never-ending mountains that never stops changing as you travel within them, offers yet a totally different vista as skiers retrace their way back to their point of origin..

During my instructing days, as my students explored and discovered the once hidden treasures, the experience always brought big smiles to their faces and to my own too. This satisfaction alone would have been enough to have kept me at that job forever if I didn't suffer from the wanderlust that took me to America. Today, most of my friends and former colleagues continue to take their clients to explore and enjoy “Les Portes du Soleil”, that web of more than 200 ski lifts that span between the mountains of France and Switzerland...

We're all curious, we love to explore, seek new adventures and marvel at unforeseen discoveries. That's what a network of ski resorts linked together brings to the picture. An ever-changing, surprise-filled, mountain experience. Who would be selfish enough to deny it to the 55 year old nurse from Florida, the 10 year old kid from Boston or the 62 year old teacher from Chicago?Just a few privileged outdoors people that just are lucky enough to live in the mountain and believe that all turns should be “earned”?

I don't personally think so. Being from the mountains, born and raised in them, I appreciate their beauty and believe that – when possible, they should be opened up to all, and shared with an open, generous heart. In the Wasatch, it would take a minimal effort to open the doors to that rich experience. Just 3 or 4 lifts, at the very most, would allow this transformation.

The ecological impact would be minimal, if at all, as it could in fact cut down on skier-driven miles from one distant canyon to the other. Practical experience at interconnected resort shows actually that visitors will rarely take advantage of the full array of roaming options that are open to them during their week-long stay, but they'll still feel very gratified because they know that these choices are within their reach, if they really wanted them. In the end, the local population will be the one taking the fullest advantage of the run network over the course of successive winter seasons...

So should we deny ourselves this trove of recreational experience? The Wasatch Front is after all the only place where such a linked skiing experience can be easily created in North America... Those who oppose “One Wasatch” sound to be more like an elitist group of people who want to close the gate behind them and savor the experience only to themselves.

Not everyone is an adept of back-country and has the skills to evolve on any kind of snow and slope. Not everyone has the time to learn how to use skins and the depth of knowledge that comes with safe, back-country navigation. Not everyone is physically equipped to “earn” their own turns and the opposition to 3 or 4 extra lifts allowing free passage of skiers, sounds more like a selfish reaction than a selfless act to protect nature, as it portends to be.

Back in the Alps, more than 40 years after interconnects happened, this bickering between back-country adepts and skiers has no currency and never had any. On the contrary, it has just made skiing more fun and more inclusive for everyone, and particularly for locals who have seasons to explore and discover its hidden treasures.

It has also fostered healthy emulation among resorts, it has united distant mountain communities, optimized ski resorts investment by bringing more folks from destination resorts into what used to be struggling, weekend-only areas and it has exposed more folks to the joy of back-country by enhancing its access. Which individual who loves adventure, exploration, and has a healthy dose of natural curiosity wouldn’t want this?