There’s a big shake-up happening in the snow industry. As of yesterday afternoon, the group Wasatch Equality, along with snowboarders Rick Alden, Drew Hicken, Richard Varga, and pro-snowboarder Bjorn Leines, filed a lawsuit against Alta Ski Resort, stating that it is unlawful to keep snowboarders from using the Nation Forest Land and that it violates our 14th Amendment rights.
I for one would be STOKED if this goes through. I have heard nothing but amazing things about the endless powder and gnarly terrain to be found at Alta. However, I’m trying not to get my hopes up. The only reason I’m worried is because Alta is not technically discriminating against certain type of person by something like race or religion, they are simply prohibiting the use of certain equipment. Snowboarders are more than welcome at Alta, they just have to ski. On the flip side, Alta operates on United States Forest Service Public Land with a permit that states “the lands and waters covered by this permit shall remain open to the public for all lawful purposes,” and seeing as snowboarding is a lawful activity, we might have some legs in this argument.
Either way, it will be very interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out, and I really hope one day I get to ride at Alta on my Limited Edition Mod Rocker from Rome SDS that says “Spray Skiers” in huge letters on the base. Also, if you need anymore reason to support snowboarders in this fight, watch what these idiots have to say about snowboarders at Alta…
