BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON — With the new snow this week comes a lot of anxious skiers and snowboarders hoping to get up the Cottonwood canyons to some fresh powder.
To help recreationists move with relatively little waiting, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office is implementing a new program this winter to advise the public of closures in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.
The sheriff's office will now send out texts and e-mails to those who sign up for the program, advising them of closures due to avalanche control and accidents, as well as important information such as how long it will be before a road is reopened. As soon as the canyon or part of the canyon are shut down, word will be issued immediately from the laptops inside the sheriff's office's Canyon Patrol vehicles.
"It's very real time," said Sheriff's Lt. Brent Atkinson. "Once the sergeant receives the information, he would be able to send that out just as soon as we receive it."
Part of the goal of the new notification system is to prevent the occasional enormous traffic jams at the mouths of each canyon extending into nearby side streets, typically on the mornings after a heavy snowfall, from motorists waiting for avalanche control to be completed.
"We're not going to allow them to stack up and wait like years past," Atkinson said.
The roads have to be unobstructed not only for snowplows and emergency vehicles to get through, but residents as well. Atkinson said the sheriff's office met with residents at the mouths of each canyon this summer and listened to their concerns about the trouble getting into their own neighborhoods on days when ski traffic clogs all nearby side streets
To sign up for the canyon closure alerts, the public can go to www.slsheriff.org. There, they can sign up to receive either e-mail or text messages. There is also a place residents at the mouths of the canyons can sign up to receive more detailed road closure information, Atkinson said.
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