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Show Letters to the editor What price? Editor: This letter is a response to Met Johnson's letter concerning the Engen Mountain ski development. Johnson's letter painted a very biased impression of what this ski resort will do for Cedar City. According to Mr. Johnson, it should bring great wealth to the people of our area. Cash registers will be ringing in all the stores, gas stations, restaurants, and shops in town. It may be true that we would see some increase in-crease in trade in our area, but what price would we pay for this profit? I was born and raised in a skiing town. I've visited several others and I've been a skier all my life. I know what the ski industry can bring to a community. Has Mr. Johnson seen the skiing canyons above Salt Lake littered with cans, broken glass, plastic, and hamburger wrappers? Has he seen the perpetual smudge of air above Park City? Did he tell you that the bacterial count in the culinary waters of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons has been a critical problem for the last several years? Mr. Johnson states that Engen Mtn. ; will bring "recreational alternatives, and participation in a wholesome athletic activity.. .to be enjoyed by all." We already have that opportunity, at Brian Head or Mt. Holly, two beautiful resorts within easy driving distance of Cedar City. Why tear up our canyon to duplicate something that is available in an adjoining canyon. - We have something unique in Cedar City a beautiful, quiet, peaceful canyon right at our backdoor AND a functioning, entirely adequate ski resort in the adjoining canyon. I have another question for Mr. Johnson. Is he personally familiar with the terrain Mr. Hartlmaier calls a mountain "God made for skiers"? Has he been up on the slope personally and checked its adequacy for a ski resort? Well, I have. I skied up the proposed site to the base of Black Mtn. last weekend to have a look at it for myself. I should say, tried to ski up Black Mtn. There wasn't enough snow there for cross country skis (which need a lot less than downhill skis) and so I took them off and walked up the proposed Engen Mtn. ski site. What I saw convinced me that building a ski resort there is very poorly advised. I am firmly convinced that there will only rarely be enough snow at that location to make for even mediocre skiing. He knows that the volcanic slides will be unskiable and extremely ex-tremely dangerous. He knows that the prevailing winds will blow the snow off his steep ascent down Black Mtn. And he knows he'll rarely have enough snow to safely cover the myriad of snags, stumps, and rocks that will completely blanket his runs. And so Mr. Hartlmaier proposes to make snow, and spray it on his runs to cover these hazards. According to the BLM Environmental Assessment, it would take 100,000 gallons of water to cover one acre of ground with 20" of non-compacted non-compacted snow; How many hundreds of acres does Mr. Hartlmaier plan to cover? Where will this water come from? I have another question for Mr. Johnson: Have you ever skied on artificial ar-tificial snow? The sensation is about as exciting as riding one of those mechanical horses in front of a grocery store. Steve Eberhard CedarCity |