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Show Utah author speaks out against development of Interconnect by Christopher Smart Utah's Interconnect may be the talk of the national ski scene this year but, according accord-ing to local skier and author Alexis Kelner, it could prove devastating to the countryside country-side and would penalize local skiers as well. The Interconnect system, by which a skier will be able to travel between five of Utah's major ski resorts by no other means but chairlifts and alpine gear, has been touted in major ski magazines as unique in North America. Ski Utah, the promotional organization for the state's ski industry, has used the Interconnect as a national marketing tool. The Interconnect has even been discussed in the New York Times. While it is already possible to ski from Park City to Solitude and Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and then over to Alta and at a point." In his book, "Skiing in Utah-a history," Kelner quotes a study conducted by the University of Utah Bureau of Economic and Business Research on the impacts of the ski industry's growth along the Wasatch. Part of that quotation reads : "It is likely, to some extent, that greater expenses and relative deterioration of experience ex-perience will mar a particularly par-ticularly favorite site for some Utah skiers." However, Danny Richardson Richard-son of Ski Utah, taking a tack opposite from Kelner's, maintains that a growing and healthy ski industry in Utah benefits local skiers as well as residents in general. He said that local skiers still account for 45 percent of the skiing done at Utah resorts. Utah resorts treat residents well, in terms of discount rates, and offer them ex cellent skiing, he said. Richardson added that, of $120 million spent in Utah by skiers last year, tourists were responsible for $80 million. This means, he said, that the ski industry supports resident Utahns in terms of jobs and tax revenues. But Kelner isn't convinced that increased tourism is helpful to Utah residents. "They keep saying that it will broaden the tax base, but my property taxes haven't gone down." On the contrary, Kelner contends that the Utah Travel Council, Coun-cil, the state's tourism arm, actually spends taxes promoting skiing in Utah. In addition to building new lifts across the mountain tops, Kelner said that the ski industry is too involved in real estate. The developers, Kelner maintains, are forcing skiers to "take the worst with the best" by building condominium con-dominium projects up Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons and in Park City. He cites "urban sprawl" and the beginning of air pollution at the resorts as spin-offs of development at the ski areas. "The only aesthetics that developers around ski areas have is the green of dollar bills," Kelner said. However, Phil Jones, president of the Park City Ski Area, argues that skiing and real estate development go hand in hand. Real estate development, he said, " is important because it brings beds that allow a ski area to become a destination resort. It is a supporting entity." Although the Park City Ski Area and surrounding developments lie on private lands, the ski resorts on the Big and Little Cottonwood aspects of the Interconnect are on National Forest lands. Kelner faults the Forest Service Ser-vice for allowing additional chairlifts and other developments. "We have to protect the terrain in the Wasatch more than the Forest Service has been willing to do in the past. They have acted like they were the ski industry around here," Kelner said. The intrusion of resorts into in-to the back country of the Wasatch has depleted much of the intermediate and beginning skier terrain for cross country skiers, according accord-ing to Kelner. Soon cross country skiers will have to drive to the Uintas for touring which, he said, "is extremely unfair." He argued that the Forest Service Ser-vice should be "more responsive to noncommercial non-commercial recreation." oiiuwuuu in Liiiiie uoiiun- wood, the Interconnect is not yet complete. Preliminary plans call for additional chairlifts so that skiing between the resorts can become more convenient. However, Kelner, who has been skiing the back country in the Wasatch Mountains for 30 years, and has authored two books on Utah skiing, maintains that more chairlift installations between Park City and the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon resorts will be "scenically devastating," will "significantly "signifi-cantly decrease back country skiing terrain," and are "not in the best interest of the local skier." The national promotion linking Utah's skiing with the Interconnect is in keeping with the industry's stance that "bigger is better," bet-ter," Kelner said. He argued that larger ski resorts don't necessarily mean skiing will be of a higher quality. "Bigness becomes grossness |