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Supporters of increased bus service worry that what they believe is a more commonsense solution - the bus route - is getting lost in the gondola hype.īoth Niederhauser and McCandless, who no longer hold elected offices, confirmed to the Deseret News they are under contract to purchase the plot of land where the gondola would be built. Gondola supporters describe it as an air-quality friendly, avalanche-proof solution that would finally provide powder hounds with a totally different alternative to get up the canyon, other than driving up what they describe as a treacherous road where traffic grinds to a halt at the first slide-off. Or the vast, 4.9-mile gondola in Vietnam that uses the same 3S lift technology.īut is it really the right thing for Utah? Does a bus system serve more people more cheaply? And do the political players supporting the gondola have a financial motive to support it? The closest comparison? Think the 2.7-mile, Peak 2 Peak gondola in Canada’s Whistler Blackcomb Resort. There’s nothing like it that currently exists in Utah or the nation.

The Utah Department of Transportation isn’t slated to make a final recommendation between those two options from its draft environmental impact study until this upcoming 2021-22 ski season.īut hype is already mounting for one of those options: the gondola. Those two options have so far made the cut as the most viable solutions to solving the snarl of traffic in Little Cottonwood Canyon on powder days, when thousands of skiers and snowboarders flock to experience what’s made Utah famous: the Wasatch Mountains’ “greatest snow on Earth.” Regardless of which is picked, it will be staggeringly expensive.Ī $592-million, 8-mile gondola? Or $510 million for enhanced bus service with a wider road?