Powder Day transportation options to Alta and Snowbird, bus or gondola?

The word is out, everyone loves Utah powder. Photo: Gondola Works Coalition

LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah. — The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is holding a 45-day public comment period from June 25 – August 9 to hear views regarding the two preferred alternatives for transportation in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The two options include enhanced bus service in the shoulder lane on State Route 210 during high traffic and a gondola from the base station at La Caille.

Bus rider parking would be at either the gravel pit hub at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, or at the intersection of 9400 South and Highland Drive in Sandy. Buses would arrive every five minutes.

The gondola would require a base station near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, with roughly 1,500 parking spaces. The gondola would arrive every two minutes and would be able to carry a maximum of 35 people.

The Gondola Works Coalition has been formed to endorse a new gondola in Little Cottonwood. Alta, Snowbird, and Ski Utah are listed as endorsers of the project. Gondola Works Coalition says that the issue is a generational challenge and says that “57% of the 9 miles of SR 210 is threatened by 64 avalanche paths.” (The Gondola Works Coalition video is included below UDOT’s Little Cottonwood Canyon Draft EIS Preferred Alternatives Overview.)

The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance believes that both options are insufficient, “These solutions not only miss the target on making things better, but the train and gondola concepts threaten many of the things that make the Wasatch Mountains so amazing today.” The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance has Black Diamond, Kuhl, and Voile listed as their sponsors. (The Wasatch Alliance’s perspective and Facebook post is included below.)

Other ideas that are being considered along with the two plans include snow sheds, park-and-ride lots with transit service, improvements to Wasatch Boulevard, tolling or single occupancy restrictions, combating trailhead parking, and eliminating winter roadside parking above Snowbird Entry 1.

UDOT studied 124 different concepts over the past two years and has now funneled it down to two.

The in-person public hearing will take place at Butler Middle School on July 13th from 4:30-8:30 pm.

The virtual public hearing over Zoom will take place on July 20th from 6-8:30 pm.