New Rules for Little Cottonwood Canyon Backcountry Access

Photo courtesy of Leslie Hittmeier.

Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon has been notorious for delays and closures due to avalanche mitigation work taking longer than expected due to backcountry travelers in the area. In order to combat these delays, the Utah Department of Transportation has issued a new protocol for road and access closures on SR 120, the access road for Snowbird and Alta.

From UDOT: “The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is implementing a revised policy for backcountry closures in Little Cottonwood Canyon this winter to help get SR 210 open quickly and safely, keep it open, and to reduce the likelihood of backcountry travelers exposed to avalanche explosives work. UDOT has thousands of people waiting on them to reduce the avalanche hazard and safely open the road and the sighting of a single person or even evidence of a person near their artillery targets can delay opening for hours. For this reason, they will be enforcing a complete closure of ALL backcountry in Little Cottonwood Canyon the night before any planned avalanche mitigation work. If this revised plan does not work, more restrictive closures may be needed.”

In a nutshell, this means that there is no backcountry travel allowed in all of LCC until the authorities have given the green light. This also means any travelers found breaking the rules are subject to arrest under local Town of Alta Ordinance 5-4-1: AUTHORITY TO PROHIBIT OUTDOOR TRAVEL.

Keep in mind, these closures are there for the safety of everyone due to the military weaponry used to set off controlled avalanches in dangerous terrain, and will hopefully help alleviate late openings for skiers in the future.

For more info, read what UDOT’s Paul Diegel has to say here.