Little Cottonwood Canyon is the gem of the Central Wasatch, and as ski season moves into full swing here, we feel compelled to share our analysis of the costs all Utahns would bear if UDOT proceeds with its plans to erect a gondola through one of Utah’s most iconic natural landscapes. As resort skiing costs rise, Utahns shouldn’t subsidize out-of-state skiers' vacations.
In decades past there was a robust and effective public transit system serving Alta and Snowbird. One could catch a bus at multiple places in the valley and ride it to the resorts. In fact, visitors from afar didn’t even need to rent a car. One could fly in, transfer to a hotel, catch a bus in the morning and get off at the resort of choice. Slowly, that service went away, and the canyon congestion took its place.
Our Wasatch Front is blessed with some of the most spectacular, accessible natural places in the country. We often overlook the fact that these places are both finite and fragile. Once they are gone they are gone forever, not to be enjoyed by future generations or even the current one. Do we really want to sacrifice the beauty of the future for the expediency of the present?
UDOT’s proposed gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon would also be built at great cost to taxpayers and households across Utah. Utah is home to approximately one million households. The proposed gondola would cost between $750 million and $1.4 billion to complete, subject to rising costs from inflation. UDOT would argue it is less, and many will argue that it’s more. So, if we take a conservative estimate to the cost of the gondola project, at $1 billion, the average cost to each of Utah’s one million households would be approximately $1,000 per household.
If the state is willing to spend $1,000 of each Utah household’s taxes on a gondola, they should be willing to demonstrate that the least expensive options, like parking reservations, tolling and additional bussing, can’t improve the congestion problem first. But instead of these obvious measures, ski bus service to Little Cottonwood Canyon resorts has been reduced in recent years. In the 2023-2024 season, that was as low as 23 scheduled bus trips per day up LCC, not nearly enough to make a dent in the number of cars traveling up the canyon.
Funding the proposed gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon would be the highest-cost, most egregious option, misusing public funds to benefit ski resorts at Utah taxpayers’ expense. Through public bonds, taxes or other state funding mechanisms, Utahns are being forced to bankroll infrastructure that serves private interests, used mostly by out-of-state-skiers, which make up 56% of skier visits to resorts in Utah. Less than one in ten Utahns ski, but all of us would pay. Why should Utah taxpayers foot the bill to shuttle out-of-state skiers to private resorts during their vacations?
Funding a gondola isn’t just a misuse of taxpayer funding, but is also socially unjust, robbing the poor for the benefit of the rich. We know a gondola doesn’t solve the traffic problem. While it will take some of the cars off the road, the well-documented effects of freeway widening show that the reduction is only transitory and traffic goes back to current levels in a very few years.
Taxpayer-friendly, low-impact solutions, like improved bus systems and tolls benefit all canyon visitors, while impacting visitors to the canyon rather than taxpayers across the state. New buses can serve communities nearby and outside the Cottonwood Canyons during the summer months. Toll revenue can be the source of the increased investment in busing, and pricing could be adjusted during peak periods of use, like powder days, when congestion is worst.
When public dollars are at stake, they should be directed toward initiatives that uplift communities, protecting important natural spaces. A gondola that costs Utah households $1,000 each while privatizing the profits is a betrayal of the public trust. If taxpayers are footing the bill, those taxes should go to projects with direct, measurable and broadly agreed-upon public benefits. Otherwise, you and I pay the price for corporate welfare dressed as public infrastructure.