About our position regarding RACS on Superior

Recently the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance reported on – after meeting with UDOT – the planned installation of 16 Wyssen Remote Avalanche Control Systems (RACS) on Mount Superior across from Snowbird. On both UDOT and WBA’s social media posts there was a fair bit of outcry about this new development on one of our iconic peaks, with many complaints that it was sprung upon the community, was a permanent blight on such an aesthetic peak, and why wasn’t WBA actively taking up arms against UDOT and the Forest Service about this project.

As we all know, modern avalanche mitigation via military mortars fired from a distance was essentially born at Alta. As many know, RACS have slowly been becoming an alternative to the howitzers as their technology has improved, with various types of RACS being installed over the last decade on Flagstaff Peak, the Emma Ridges, Baldy, and the south ridge of Superior. While the concept of a shortage of shells for the howitzers is basically a myth, the reality of shooting live ammunition over buildings, state highways, and sleeping people with a “kill zone” of a 1km radius from the target is very real, which makes officials from the military to the Department of Homeland Security to local mayors nervous. Hence the governmental enthusiasm for RACS.

A comprehensive blanket of nearly 200 RACS above Highway 210 was announced as early as 2017 by UDOT avalanche supervisor and avid backcountry skier Bill Nalli at the 2017 Utah Avalanche Workshop, but early implementation was slow.

This year UDOT finally got serious about it and created a plan for 16 RACS to pepper the 35 targets that they have identified and shot as avalanche starting zones. 12 of the 16 are on private land that is owned by Snowbird, which has Superior avalanche mitigation as a high priority and relies on UDOT for that mitigation (unlike its internal resort avalanche mitigation done by Snowbird employees). Though we may not like it, Snowbird has control of those lands – just as Deer Valley controls the development of their lands – and in theory, can do what they will on it without Forest Service or public approval (and Snowbird expressly permits access to their copious lands on both sides of the LCC/BCC ridgeline).

Therefore, though WBA doesn’t necessarily like the visual blight of man-made structures sullying any mountains – much less the beautiful lines of Superior – we did not see any path forward to prevent Snowbird and UDOT from executing the RAC installation on their lands.

The other four Wyssens are on Forest Service – ie public – land, and the Forest elected to apply an oft-used tool called a “Categorical Exclusion” which basically allows the Forest Supervisor the ability to approve a project without triggering a comprehensive Environmental Assessment (as was recently completed regarding the Mill Creek Canyon upper road improvement project) or the yet-even-more-comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement that was recently done by UDOT on the gondola project (The FS also has the ability to simply not accept a project for any kind of consideration by them).

The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance has learned to be wary of the potential for a Categorical Exclusion; the Wasatch Powderbird Guides’ special use permit for helicopter-based guided skiing was renewed under a CE because the Forest Supervisor felt that there had been no conditional change over the life of the permit, though we argued that exponential growth of backcountry riders in the Central Wasatch indeed constituted a “conditional change.”

For better or worse, once a CE is granted, there is little recourse, and given the many issues that the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance is tracking and working on, we have been unwilling to expend the resources to try to stop this RAC project. We also considered the fact that avalanche mitigation via RACS has the potential to allow the opening of terrain more quickly (“closing” upper LCC terrain for avalanche mitigation only started a few years ago) on storm mornings because it was simply replacing howitzer shots that needed to be done sequentially and in daylight.

WBA’s activist board was disappointed to learn that yet more permanent development visually impacting the Wasatch was planned. WBA has chosen to not take a position on this issue for two reasons:

Avalanche mitigation is critical to highway safety and access for recreational and residential use of LCC. The US Military, the owners of the currently used howitzers, has made it clear that firing live ammunition across habitations will be phased out. The only viable means of large-scale avalanche mitigation is by using explosives and protecting roads and buildings with snowsheds and diversion structures, and a snowshed to get slides to cross the road directly into Snowbird is not an option. Fixed RACS will make avalanche mitigation faster, safer, and more reliable and will improve backcountry access in upper LCC. The realistic alternative to RACS is not yesterday’s technology forever; rather it’s a dramatic reduction in access to upper LCC for everyone.
Among other things, WBA is actively engaged in:

Preventing ski resort expansion into backcountry terrain
Preventing hostile private property owners from denying backcountry riders access to prime terrain in adjacent public lands
Working with UDOT to prioritize plowing backcountry trailheads
Fighting for additional wilderness designation (it is our understanding that RACS cannot be installed in wilderness areas)
Preventing inappropriate subsidized ski lifts such as the proposed LCC gondolas

In this context, we have decided to focus our attention and limited resources on these bigger and more-winnable battles. WBA is, however, using this opportunity to remind the FS and UDOT that we represent legions of their constituents and that as partners in the Wasatch, we expect to be consulted on future decisions affecting human-powered winter travel. We too will miss scrambling the South Ridge this summer and will sigh when passing an RAC on one of those memorable descents down our beloved Classic next winter, but hope that the future battles will be won to maintain the uneasy balance of backcountry terrain in the Central Wasatch.