SkiLink proposal divides users over access and environment

Last season Utah attracted 20 million ski and snowboard visitors and another $1.2 billion in revenue to area businesses. Now one group says by linking Park City and Big Cottonwood canyon those figures could rise.

Talisker Corp.'s the Canyons resort wants to link its Park City runs with Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon via a gondola. The development would add 500 permanent operational jobs and generate $50 million of revenue annual at its outset. Not everyone is happy.

"This project is designed to make Utah more attractive to out-of-state skiers and to bring our local ski community together," said Mike Goar, managing director of the Canyons, in an interview. "The Canyons and Park City are two well-established resorts with challenges for skiers and snowboarders. This project now opens the door for more access."

SkiLink, as it is called, would reduce ski season traffic through Big Cottonwood Canyon by as much as 18,000 cars, or 10 percent of ski- and snowboard-related traffic each year, according to Talisker, citing an independent study it conducted. That translates into 1 million fewer miles driven and around 1 million fewer pounds of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The eight-passenger SkiLink gondola will link an existing 6,000 acres of skiable terrain as it transporst skiers between the Canyons and Solitude in an 11-minute ride, Talisker reported. Entry and exit to the SkiLink Gondola will be mid mountain at the Canyons and the base of Solitude with no other stops along the route.

To access the gondola, visitors must purchase a special pass. No price has been set, said Goar. The total pass would not cost more than the combined value of each resort.

Goar said the design with not impact backcountry skiers. Others disagree.

The U.S. Forrest Service owns the land through which SkiLink would pass. In 2003, the Forrest Service said in a report that boundaries could not expand into undelveloped areas, as is the case with SkiLink.

To make the construction possible, Talisker along with Congressman Rob Bishop, who serves as chairman of the subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands, Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and Sen. Mike Lee jointly introduced House and Senate legislation, asking for the sale of 30.3 acres of land at fair market value.

Carl Fisher, director of the nonprofit Save our Canyons, said the Forest Service rulling is one of many reasons to reject the project along with potential impact to the watershed. The SkiLink path crosses land classified as "function at risk" by the Forest Service.