Winters before anyone outside of Europe had heard of them, much less adopted them, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) installed the country’s first Wyssen towers on Mount Superior, high above the Town of Alta.
In addition to being mostly unknown, the remotely controlled avalanche mitigation devices were exceedingly expensive. Yet, UDOT had a hunch they could be a game changer in its effort to protect the town atop the most avalanche-prone highway in the United States.
Four years later, UDOT is going all in on Wyssen towers in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The agency announced Monday that it will be installing 16 of them along the Mount Superior ridgeline starting July 8.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) O'Bellx compact avalanche-release systems and a Wyssen Avalanche Tower, at Alta Ski Resort, on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023.
“This project is part of UDOT’s long-term plan to reduce the amount of military artillery fired in the canyon,” Steven Clark, UDOT’s avalanche safety program manager said in a statement. “By using this technology, we will enhance safety and become even more effective at preventing avalanches from reaching our roads.”
For decades, UDOT had been employing a 105 mm howitzer cannon to do most of its avalanche mitigation on Mount Superior. That machine was housed at Alta Ski Area in the same shed as the howitzer the resort used to preemptively trigger slides on Mount Baldy. When the Army asked the resort to return the cannon, which Alta did last spring, UDOT opted to decommission its big gun as well.
The Wyssen towers will take its place, but the high-tech approach comes at a cost.
Clark told The Tribune that the Wyssen towers will be more expensive to install this year than they were in 2020, largely because all delivery of parts and people will need to be done via helicopter. When the first 13 were installed on Emma Ridge in 2020, he said crews had some access via old mining roads.
However, residents and visitors to the canyon also will pay for the new technology by giving up some of their pristine views.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jaybee Keller, Alta Ski Patrol, explains how the Howitzers are being used for avalanche mitigation at Alta, on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023.
“They’re 10 meters high, or 30 feet tall. They’re just pieces of infrastructure that are going to be there permanently,” Clark said. “We’ve done our best to look at the visual impacts and try to adjust where we can to compromise between visual impacts and effective avalanche mitigation. But certainly, the visual impact is, I think, is going to be the most notable for people.”
The tradeoff, he said, is vastly improved safety for both workers and for residents and visitors. No longer will artillery shells be shot across the canyon — over the tops of homes, lodges and condominiums — to trigger slides on Mount Superior. Neither will anyone be called at 3 a.m. to drive up in a blizzard to shoot off the avalanche cannon. Plus, towers can be removed and repairs done at UDOT’s maintenance shed rather than on the steep mountainside.
“it’s just this extra layer of [risk] that you’re you’re eliminating,” he said.
“The big overarching goal,” he added, “is that it’s really hitting on a lot of improved safety measures.”
Still, UDOT will continue to use a howitzer lower down the canyon and around Snowbird, Clark said. That’s because most of that land lies within the Twin Peaks Wilderness, which imposes stricter limitations on permanent structures than the area around Alta. That land is mostly controlled by the US Forest Service and private landowners.
To install the towers, UDOT will need to effect some short-term road closures on State Route 210 and in the Town of Alta. In addition, parts of the Mount Superior recreation area, including trails and climbing routes, will be closed for the duration of the project.
“We encourage everyone who recreates in the upper canyon to plan ahead, visit the project website and look at the map of the closure area where the Wyssen Avalanche Towers will be installed,” UDOT Region Two Project Manager Becky Stromness said in a press statement. “Respecting the construction area closure will help us get the new towers installed as safely and quickly as possible so we can begin using them this winter.”
Correction • July 3, 2024, 10:25 a.m.: UDOT used a 105 mm howitzer cannon to mitigate avalanches on Mount Superior before this winter.
