SLCA's Comments to the CWC's MTS Draft Report

ACTION ALERT

The voice of climbers is needed to plan for transportation and access to climbing in the greater Wasatch region.

Please share your thoughts with the Central Wasatch Commission (CWC) on their  Mountain Transportation System Draft Alternatives Report (MTS) by October 18th. Submit your comments to the CWC here. This plan will affect climbing access in the greater Wasatch.

The SLCA is concerned that the MTS Draft Report fails to adequately recognize and incorporate the needs of climbers and other dispersed recreation participants. In doing so, it outlines several alternatives which are potentially detrimental to Wasatch area climbing resources and surrounding environments; including possible permanent climbing resource loss.

There is still extensive analysis needed that considers dispersed recreation in CWC’s MTS proposal.

Ultimately, the SLCA continues to advocate for year-round dispersed recreation access to climbing resources with transit solutions that accommodate appropriately for traffic safety as well as current and future access to sustainable climbing resources. Growth trends in climbing as a sport are increasing as is the use of outdoor climbing resources in LCC. This use needs to be appropriately considered in the CWC's Alternatives.

The SLCA provided these comments to UDOT’s LCC EIS this past month. The CWC MTS attempts to give lens to a forest-wide approach to transportation that will include decisions made in the LCC EIS process.

Photo by Jon Vickers