SLCA'S Comments to Environmental Impact Statement for Little Cottonwood Canyon
Salt Lake Climbers Alliance
P.O. Box 9157
Salt Lake City, Utah 84109
SaltLakeClimbers.org
Attention:
Brandon Weston, Environmental Services Director
Environmental Services Division, UDOT
4501 South 2700 West
P.O. Box 141265
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114–1265
(801) 965–4603
brandonweston@utah.gov.
John Thomas, PE
Little Cottonwood Canyon Project Manager
UDOT Region 2
2010 South 2760 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84104–4592
(801) 550–2248
johnthomas@utah.gov.
RE: Salt Lake Climbers Alliance Comments to Environmental Impact Statement for Little Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake County, UT.
June 14th, 2019
UDOT Planners:
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance (SLCA) appreciates this opportunity to provide input to the public scoping process for the Little Cottonwood Canyon Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Little Cottonwood Canyon (LCC) is a world-class climbing area that many Utahns travel to every day, especially SLCA members. It attracts thousands of climbers from across the United States and internationally each year. The appeal is not only the quality of the rock climbing but also the vastly undeveloped landscapes that make up the Central Wasatch. As human powered recreation stakeholders who love this land and visit it often, the SLCA provides the following comments to the current scoping process for the LCC EIS.
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance is the local climbing advocacy 501(c)(3) non-profit in and around Salt Lake City, Utah. The SLCA exists to provide a unified voice for climbers in the Wasatch through stewardship, community, advocacy and education. We work closely with land agencies including the BLM and USFS as well as private landowners such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Church) to steward and manage for climbing resources in the Uinta Wasatch Cache National Forest.
In 2017, we completed the largest climbing trail access project on Forest Service property in the nation in LCC, contributing over $100,000, hundreds of volunteer hours and expertise to develop sustainable human powered recreation infrastructure. In 2017, we also signed a recreational lease with the Access Fund for 140 acres of privately owned Church property to steward and manage for climbing. We have also helped facilitate climbing management in rural Emery County at Joes Valley with volunteerism and stewardship. We are partners with national climbing advocacy organizations such as the Access Fund and the American Alpine Club as well as the Outdoor Alliance. For more information about the SLCA, visit www.saltlakeclimbers.org.
The SLCA is dedicated to the protection, management, and stewardship of the valuable recreational resources throughout LCC and the entire Central Wasatch. We ask for an inclusive public process that continues to invite all stakeholders to the table to best manage this landscape with a balanced approach and provide the following comments to the plan.
The UDOT scoping notice requested input specific to:
● Purpose and need for improvements to S.R. 210 as affecting recreation including climbing.
● Priorities and issues that UDOT should consider in regard to S.R. 210.
● Ideas for transportation improvement that should be considered in the EIS process.
The SLCA provides its comments below. This climbing resource map (also attached) identifies climbing resources in the project area. Our comments are geared towards preserving climbing access and improving transportation safety.
1. Climbing area access and parking:
a. Growth trends in climbing are increasing use of outdoor climbing resources in LCC and parking to access these resources. The SLCA is focused on maintaining parking capacity and developing transit options that serve disperse recreation in LCC while improving safety. The SLCA recognizes that less parking on the highway shoulders is a net gain for safety and have responded to this need by working to formalize trails and increase connectivity from centralized parking and access points. We are currently working with UDOT to this end through the development of the new parking and trailhead at the Grit Mill parking lot. The Gate Buttress Project aims to create trail connectivity within the 140 acre parcel funneling to the Gate Buttress Parking Lot.
b. Gate Buttress parking capacity in the preliminary sketch supplied by UDOT to the Church and the SLCA is reduced compared to current use levels. All told, there are often times 50+ vehicles parked on both sides of the road in this area. Congestion is compounded when you add the parking at the 5 Mile bouldering area and the large pull out adjacent the pipe bridge on the southside of the highway. Without overflow parking and/or a viable transit option, recreation access would be limited if roadside parking is eliminated. The SLCA would like work with UDOT and the Church to address parking capacity in this area.
2. Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) parking:
a. There is potential for the BST to connect to the Alpenbock Trail network (trailhead at the LCC Park and Ride) as it extends between Big Cottonwood Canyon and LCC. Parking access pressure in this area will likely increase as this trail extends along the Wasatch Front.
b. BST access points from Ferguson Canyon (Golden Oaks Trailhead) and at the Aqueduct Trailhead will likely receive increased pressure as well.
c. Private landowners have a history of working to push parking off city streets and onto designated parking far away from the actual trailhead. These access points also serve as focal points for criminal activities and greatly benefit from increased law enforcement presence.
d. The SLCA would like to work with UDOT in the development of new parking areas for BST access to be compatible with climbing access in lower LCC.
3. Road width:
a. The initial sketch shows added road width for a flex and bike lanes on the north side of the highway. Given the potential impacts to the Gate Buttress parking and roadside climbing resources, the extent of the ROW needs to be confirmed between the Church, SLCA and UDOT. This information should serve as a baseline dataset to best inform the EIS process. Avoidance and/or mitigation of impacts to climbing resources from cut and fill and other construction activity within and outside the ROW is a priority for the SLCA.
b. Some of the most popular bouldering areas such as the Secret Garden, Cabbage Patch, 5 Mile, The Worm and others are all within 30 feet of the road. Understanding their location in relation to any proposed changes is critical to these resources. A map of the ROW with climbing resources indicated is warranted.
4. Pedestrian safety, road width and parking at 5 Mile bouldering area and the pipe bridge:
a. The planning sketches for parking areas provided by UDOT do not address the parking and pedestrian safety at key access points to climbing areas in the middle canyon such as the pipe bridge across from the Gate Buttress parking or the 5 Mile bouldering area.
b. There is very little room for parking at 5 Mile which is at a curve made even more dangerous by speeding vehicles in the lower canyon.
c. Pedestrian traffic: Whether or not this parking goes away, a pedestrian crossing is needed as well as mitigation of possible impacts to bouldering access and resources.
d. The overflow capacity at the pipe bridge is attractive, but also problematic as it encourages access to a dangerous creek crossing and a heavily impacted area in the canyon. To improve safety, a new pedestrian crossing should be added. New pedestrian crossings, at the pipe bridge and at other locations, would have the added safety benefit of helping lower vehicle speeds in the canyon.
5. Bus pullout options throughout the lower canyon are not currently listed. The SLCA would like to work with UDOT on locating bus pullouts at the Gate Buttress, the Grit Mill and the pipe bridge parking areas.
6. Mid canyon parking versus designated park and ride areas:
a. The SLCA is concerned that improvements to mid canyon parking may result in use by skiers for the purpose of accessing the resorts; such use will reduce climbing access to these climbing areas. The SLCA would like to work with UDOT to differentiate mid-canyon parking areas from resort skiing parking.
7. Other climbing area access in the S.R 210 Corridor:
a. Access to bouldering areas and cliffs farther up canyon will continue to develop as climbers push further into the backcountry. We welcome dialogue on sustainable policy and planning for access to areas not currently noted.
b. Many ice climbing areas align with winter backcountry access and dispersal. Rock climbing often occurs in these areas but with significant seasonal variation such as the Great White Icicle and Black Peeler access points. Formalizing or maintaining existing, informal pull outs is necessary to facilitate access in some areas.
8. Other LCC climbing areas of note:
a. Middle Canyon: Lisa Falls, parking at the top of the LCCTrail used to access Pentapitch and Coalpit, Maybird Gulch, and Tanners Gulch.
b. Upper Canyon: Mt. Superior, Hellgate, East Hellgate, Albion Basin. (Cecret Lake and Devil’s Castle)
c. Climbing areas between the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon and the mouth of LCC.
i. Parking areas at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon have traditionally served as a meeting point for climbs accessing all the climbing areas between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, including Ferguson, Deaf Smith canyons and the bouldering areas outside the canyons.
ii. The Outer Canyon Boulders are currently accessed from off road parking on Wasatch Drive, within 2000’ of the traffic light at Wasatch Boulevard. They are a mix of Forest Service and private lands. The SLCA would like to be involved in planning potential parking areas to ensure the best access for climbing access in this corridor.
9. Human Waste:
a. Ensuring appropriate human waste management for all visitors to the LCC watershed is of utmost importance. Implementation strategies for increased human waste management during seasonal peak times should be included in the management plan.
b. We appreciate the bathrooms noted at the Gate Buttress parking area and Lisa Falls, especially if long-term funding is in place for cleaning and maintenance.
The SLCA appreciates the opportunity to provide UDOT with input on this extremely important climbing resource. This is a huge and important task that we are available to support. Please reach out at julia@SaltLakeClimbers.org or 415.695.4502 as needed.
Sincerely,
Julia Geisler
Executive Director
Salt Lake Climbers Alliance
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A Brief Summary of Climbing in Little Cottonwood Canyon
Rock climbing and other related activities (bouldering, ice climbing, ski mountaineering) have been occurring in LCC for approximately 60 years, with the majority of the activity located in the lower two miles of the canyon. The activity is year-round with rock climbing occurring in most months. Ice climbs in the lower canyon are heavily trafficked in the middle of the winter.
The winter of 2017-2018 has been unseasonably warm with climbers still out on the rock on sunny days. Much of the rock climbing in the lower canyon is easily accessed along the north side of the lower two miles of the canyon. Climbing areas on Forest Service land contain bouldering areas all around the LCC Park and Ride Lot as well as larger cliffs and crags including Bong Eater (named after the sound a piton makes when you hammer it into the rock), The Egg and Crescent Crack.
The Church recently leased 140 acres (between the LDS Church vaults and the Gate Buttress parking area) to the SLCA and the Access Fund to formalize climbing and management. These named areas include formations such as The Fin, Altered States, Westwind Buttress, The Thumb, Green Adjective Gully, the Gate Buttress, Schoolroom and The Dihedrals. The south side of the canyon has many areas such as Contact Buttress, Super Slab, Perla’s Ridge, etc.
Further up canyon during summer and fall climbers can be found at Lisa Falls and Tanner’s Gulch and in Coalpit Gulch in the area known as Penta Pitch. At the top of the canyon there are the Hellgate Cliffs and multiple climbing areas within Albion Basin. The south ridge of Mt Superior is climbed year-round. As is the north ridge Pfeifferhorn located at the head of Maybird and Hogum Forks which is accessed via the White Pine Trailhead.
During the winter months many climbers switch to mountaineering and ice climbing. On the southside at the mouth of the canyon is the ice climbing area known as the Scruffy Band. It is perhaps one of the more difficult areas to access because the area is across from the Park and Ride lot which is habitually full on the weekends from skiers.
Located 1.5 miles up canyon is the Great White Icicle, one of the heaviest used areas by ice climbers in the winter. It is not uncommon to have climbers on the climb before 6am in the morning and past 10pm at night. With low snow years, climbers access the Y Couloir (between Coalpit Gulch and Hogum Fork) throughout the winter, normally it would be a spring climb when the snow is consolidated after many freeze - thaw cycles. During the spring, ski mountaineers access Tanner’s Gulch.
In summary, climbers are accessing the whole of the canyon year-round. Some of the areas have dedicated parking areas while others rely on road side parking. Many of the areas are on public lands while some of the areas are on private lands with access agreements.
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