This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Growth for the sake of growth," wrote Edward Abbey, "is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Constructing the SkiLink gondola between Canyons and Solitude will fundamentally alter the landscape of Big Cottonwood Canyon, a landscape essential to the character of the Wasatch Range, a character that is essential to the people of Utah.
Are we willing to sacrifice every last aspen grove to the machine of progress? Are we ready to trade away the benefits of human-powered exploration for the lazy, removed, flotation of a gondola? Are we so enthralled with the ambiguous notions of "world-class" and "premium" that we will assassinate the founding appeal and personality of the Wasatch Range?
I can't believe that we are. I won't believe that we are.
Stopping the SkiLink gondola isn't only about saving Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's about saving ourselves — a reminder that we still value open, wild, dangerous space. That we need, more than ever, someplace where there is no commerce and politics, no steel and asphalt and no cable cars.
We need clean air, running streams, spruce trees, avalanches, ridge-top sunrises and alpenglow. Alpenglow without a gondola marring the horizon.
Adam Lisonbee
Highland