Monday, January 05, 2009

Breaking; Snow Basin Withdraws Its Back-Country Permit Expansion Application

Snow Basin decides west face and other out-of-bounds descents aren't worth the public hassle

By Dan Schroeder

Breaking news from the Forest Service: Snow Basin has withdrawn its proposal to lead guided backcountry trips down all sides of Mt. Ogden.

This news would seem to confirm the view that this proposal was never a big deal to Snow Basin -- something they wanted to merely try out.

With all the public outcry (some perhaps justified, some not), they've apparently decided it isn't worth the hassle--at least for the time being.

Editor's Addendum: Special thanks also to Ogden District Ranger Chip Sibbernson for dialing up your blogmeister, and independently confirming Dan's above report within minutes of the submission of Dan's above article, and prior to its publication. Anyone who now believes that our local Forest Service Office isn't in the lumpencitizens' corner isn't paying proper attention to what we perceive to be the true facts. That's our current take, at least.

Update 1/6/09 7:00 a.m. MT: The Standard-Examiner chimes in this morning on this latest development, with this morning's information-rich Charlie Trentelman story:
Snowbasin backs off backcountry guides
Snow Basin manager Denzel Rowland says "things were misconstrued," a predictable consequence, we think, for an application which was craftily intended to be processed and approved outside the public spotlight, devoid of ANY reliable public information.

The Salt lake Tribune has an instructive writeup too:
Snowbasin withdraws backcountry-permit request
So what say our gentle readers about all this?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tough luck WFOCN. Looks like there will be no Snow Basin/Malan's Basin connection after all.

So who's "full of crap" now, we ask?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Powder Mountain has a warning sign near the lift ticket window "Backcountry rescue billed a minimum of $250". It seems that at least several times each winter a group or two of tourons (many in search of extreeeme adventure) gets lost just outside of the resort, requiring Weber County Search and Rescue assistance. Maybe it's time the County started billing people for their stupid mistakes. Rescue operations are not inexpensive nor always safe for those involved.

Anonymous said...

My father-in-law is really starting to piss me off.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

It's a miracle! Weber County Forum has been mentioned in a Standard-Examiner news article!

Meanwhile, I should state for the record that the Sierra Club never took a formal position on this proposal. Before we heard it was withdrawn, we were trying to meet with Snowbasin to discuss our respective goals and concerns.

Anonymous said...

Comment bumped to top shelf

Anonymous said...

Just like all true cock roaches the Holding/Peterson/FS combine scattered to the dark places when the light was shined on them.

Anonymous said...
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