Photo: Michael Paddock

So where’s the case at right now?
Well, Alta filed a motion to dismiss, so we filed our briefing which went before the judge in Circuit Court. Now it’s under review by him, and up to him to decide whether or not it’s going to be allowed as a court case. Alta’s briefing as to why they filed the motion to dismiss is kind of like comparing a kindergartener’s school project to a college grad project. Meaning what they had to say was a few pages of BS, such as the blind spot thing and also that it’s a business decision. We counteracted that with 50 pages of super detailed statements and dissected the actual permit from the Forest Service. Basically we have a really good argument.

Really when it comes down to it in my mind, it’s public land.
Right?

How the Forest Service can have similar permits released to 119 other resorts in the United States, yet Alta is given this special privilege of being able to deny snowboarders access to the terrain. I find it such a frail argument that there’s no way it can hold up.
No. And the public land thing; the revenue that is generated from Alta’s permit is based on what their traffic is. Whatever their revenue is for the year, they pay X amount for their permit. Over the past few years it’s actually gone down. So they claim it’s a business decision to not allow snowboarding but the fact of the matter is, their business is declining. It’s the government who is getting the benefit from the revenue generated and it’s only logical, just from a logical business standpoint, that the government would want more money for letting us use this public land. There’s no doubt that if they allowed snowboarding there, their business would exponentially grow.

Yeah it just seems like such a no brainer. It’s a small group that are really making the decisions.
Yeah and they’re not motivated by money. This small group has a ton of money. They don’t care if Alta makes more money or not, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about them holding out so they have their own place so they don’t have to interact with a certain type of person, a snowboarder. There’s this old, I guess concept, or attitude, that snowboarders are just a punk idiots, jobless stoners when that’s not the reality. For me it really hits home because my kids, as well as my brother’s kids, all started skiing at Alta with my parents who live at Alta. And then they switched to snowboarding by the time they were three-years-old. By the time they’re six or seven they don’t want to ski anymore, they want to snowboard. Now they can’t go with their grandpa and grandma to Alta. I’ve never been allowed to go there and enjoy something as a family. Besides all that the terrain is awesome. There’s sweet terrain and public land; I want to enjoy that. There’s no reason that I shouldn’t be allowed to.

It’s crazy that thought still exists after all those years. That video of the two guys posted in the parking lot with the petition to allow snowboarders is a good example. I mean you choose the correct responses to highlight in the video, but regardless of what they chose it’s a pretty comprehensive example of the attitude towards snowboarders there.
I would say that about half the people that go to Alta, if not more, would not care if snowboarders were there. Everybody has friends that ski and snowboard these days, why do we have to separate each other? It’s kind of ridiculous.

So what can people do to be involved? Is there something the average snowboarder can do to help the cause?
They can be a part of Wasatch Equality and through a donation you can help us fight the case. We’re trying to raise awareness and unite the snow community through the overturning of Alta’s Ban. The legal fees and what we’re up against; they have a lot of money. For us, we’re fighting it based on donations. There’s been donations from a lot of industry insiders and leaders. Jake Burton Carpenter, some of the guys at Rome Snowboards and a lot of other people that care have gotten involved. So yeah, you can go to the website and make a donation.

Is there anything else you want to say?
Free Alta. Alta is for everyone.