If you enjoy recreating in the outdoors, there’s a good chance you woke up Sunday morning with a very heavy heart.
Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021, will go down in history as one of Utah’s scariest days in history when it comes to avalanche safety. There were more than 25 avalanches reported and, sadly, one just minutes from the Salt Lake Valley included four fatalities. (Another slide in the Uinta Mountains involving snowmobilers just as easily could have resulted in the loss of life.)
I, too, woke up very thoughtful and saddened about the situation and coincidentally found myself inside a church for the first time in over a year to support a family friend. Immediately, the opening song, “For the Beauty of the Earth” caught my attention drawing me back to the thoughts of the avalanche victims. In the midst of a pandemic, this song felt very appropriate.
Over the last year we have seen nearly every public business that we might typically visit shut down or limit visitation. That has not been the case for our public lands or outdoor recreation destinations. Millions of people reconnected or became introduced to the beauty of Utah and its many outdoor activities during the pandemic.
People from around the country have bought homes, decided to work remotely, or even adopted the vanlife to spend more time in Utah. Unfortunately, this connection to nature is producing user groups faster than we can educate them on proper use, conservation and safety.
Whether you are looking at hiking, hunting, rock climbing, camping, mountain biking, fishing, OHVing or backcountry skiing, Utah’s outdoor destinations are seeing record breaking visitation, trail heads are packed, and none of the infrastructure was built for social distancing.
Rewind the clock two years — before this crush of COVID chaos. The Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation, in partnership with the Department of Emergency Management, recognized the growing safety concern and launched the Utah Search and Rescue Assistance Card. The goal of the program is to help bring safety awareness to recreationalists while providing needed funding to our greatly underfunded state search and rescue teams. To date, most of these teams are working with volunteer staff and are stretched thin with the number of rescues and the associated costs.
In 2019 the dangers of recreating in Utah became all too clear for at least one legislator. I was personally standing in the Utah State Capitol next to Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding. Lyman had recently lost a friend in a snowmobile-triggered avalanche that month in the La Sal Mountains. The loss of a friend was motivation to work with the OOR and the Utah Avalanche Center to bring avalanche awareness to the forefront for winter recreationalists. Lyman and Sen. Kirk Cullimore were both supporting House Bill 380: Avalanche Awareness Week.
Lyman, who some would say sees things through a different lens compared to many of the outdoor or conservation communities, looked at me with a concerned face, looked back into the packed room, and returned his gaze to me and asked, “Are all these people here to support my bill?”
To his dismay, I gave him a confident “Yes.” Shortly after, the bill passed the House with a unanimous vote in favor of Avalanche Awareness Week. It was a strong win for the state, but the bill did not provide any funding to promote the week or generate money for the important program.
This past weekend’s events have been a reminder that, while we have made some big strides forward in the last few years, our efforts are being outpaced by the number of people flocking to recreate in our state. For years we have had some of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation thanks to many different industries moving their operations to Utah. According to a study done by the Kem C. Gardner Institute, the vast majority of businesses moving here say one primary reason is due to the quality of life provided only by unmatched access to outdoor recreation.
For anyone doubting this increase in visitation, I invite you to try and go recreate in Big or Little Cottonwood canyons this upcoming Saturday morning. For your sake, I hope it doesn’t snow.
Once again we are finding ourselves in a similar situation to what Lyman felt in 2019. Like that day in the Capitol, our state is filled with people on both sides of the aisle who believe in education and the safety of our community members (and tourists). I find it timely that our governor’s budget has proposed more than $100 million for outdoor recreation and there are many bills within the current legislative session addressing recreation.
Looking at our past legislative efforts to educate visitors and to support them in the unfortunate event of a rescue, I challenge legislators this year to build on our success. We all have an obligation to maintain the quality of life that has kept us here in Utah.
We can do better at helping to mentor and educate our residents as well as our visitors. We can do better at funding our search and rescue teams who are putting their lives in harm’s way to help keep us safe. We can do better supporting those advocacy groups who are providing education and awareness. It is my hope as Utahns we can better support these efforts to limit heartbreaking events in the winter or summer.
Tom Adams, Salt Lake City, is chief operating officer of Petzl America and a former director of Utah’s Office of Outdoor Recreation.