In spite of a petition aimed at not altering various trails at Alta, the Little Cottonwood Ski Area has gone forward and begun the alteration. I went up there yesterday to go check out the changes. Nina’s Curve and Schuss Gully have been completely merged through grading, and Corkscrew has seen some grading work happen this summer as well. Pictures of the alterations are below.
Back in April, it was discovered that the two trails would be merged. A petition on Change.com by lift operators at Alta looked to reverse the plans and received over 1800 signatures. After consulting with Alta management, the petitioners announced that the trail merger would still go through. Here is the official statement from the Change Petition that was released back in April:
“After meeting with the general manager Mike Maughan I’ve been informed that Nina’s and Schuss will still be merged.
Issues with congestion and safety have pushed them to make the change as well as to accommodate the increasing number of intermediate skiers at Alta.
Alternatives such as bringing back the 180 bend or grooming the lower section of high boy were said to be unsafe.
I was also informed that this project was proposed around 2 years ago. While I did not hear anything about it then Mike Maughan said that they will try to make projects and changes more known before progressing past early stages.
I am very sorry to see that this is the last season for these two runs as they are now. Thank you so much for all the support despite the outcome. “
Alta has been receiving a lot of blowback from locals lately, as their new paid parking reservation program was met with fierce opposition. They are also attempting to convince the community on a canyon gondola, which is a cool concept but is still divisive due to some of its drawbacks. We’ll see how it turns out, but this likely wide trail will probably become yet another divisive hot button topic among Alta locals.
Image Credits: Alta Ski Area