New Maps:

Printable Real Size Crop of the most popular tour in Little Cottonwood Canyon (6mb - download time may be long. To download, right click on the image and choose "Save Target As..."

Wasatch Touring Map 2 This is the 4th printing of the Wasatch Mountains delineated by Alta, Sundance, Midway and Draper Utah. The reprint on tear and water-resistant paper got stuck in the folding machine and Sun Litho graciously did the batch over. The second batch of the water-resistant paper has a significantly lighter topo-side than the map printed on regular paper. The image is a color ortho-photo with remarkable resolution. It is possibly the only hiking map found that combines the familiar 7.5 minute USGS topo map with the color ortho. You need an enlarging glass to get the most of reading the map! -- As all other Alpentech maps, it is folded in Swiss Army style. Ready for action? Pull opposite map corners and pull the map open. The initial printing was in 1981 showing all avalanche paths known by the experts at that time. It was a false sense of secutity to map avalanches. When you look for yellow dots indicating known avalanache fatalities you can verify a concetration of dots at the Snake Pit, at Alta, on the right of tower #5 of the Sunyside lift. The New Map 2 includes perhaps too much detail for those who just like to know where to park to hit the trails. May it be a tool for thoughtful and enjoyable human-powered travel beyond... The Wasatch Touring map series has been inspired by backcountry skiing and is now equially useful for mountaineering, mountain biking and other mountain recreation route finding. It goes without saying the most important message to convey with a map is to call on the user's respect for nature and its tempers. There are no safe touring routes in the backcountry without recognition of limited knowledge, certianly not in those places where adrenaline competes with respect when entering this severe and beautiful natural environment of the Wasatch.

Selected Ongoing Projects:

Argentina Click to Play See other video here

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Completed Projects:

Mineral Basin, shown below, has drawn additional skiers to Snowbird and made a connection to Alta. The Path to Paradise and the Hamilton Cliffs are shown. These are examples of steep slope construction consisting of an "end-hauled" section and steep slope blasting and rock removal. Without these undertakings, the Mineral Basin development would not have been feasible. Today the Path to Paradise is a popular traffic artery see below.

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Typical Involvement:

With good experience and good tools, Alpentech assists clients like Snowbird, Sun Valley, and Snowbasin with half pipe grading plans to save significant quantities of man-made snow and related costs. Thanks to new tools, we also can design terrain parks necessitating summer grading. Experience with new laser survey tools gives Alpentech a cutting edge on working with the ski industry to prepare the snow structures on graded foundations.

Unique Experience:

Experience with terrain modeling is an additional service that we offer. Since 1982 we have used our unique terrain modeling techniques in 45 different projects. Key projects include Hatcher Pass for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and wind-sensitive modeling for Val Thorens, France. These illustrate the value of using Alpentech's SmartmapsTM as a tool. Even slight adjustment of mountain plans, based on suitability or hazard modeling, may yield big consequences.

Using SmartmapsTM normally costs only a fraction of the NEPA expenses. Furthermore, the review of compatibility of plans with terrain suitability offers better area layout and design. The best way to appreciate modeling may come from applying construction and operational experience in setting up the model. To this end, SmartmapsTM simply show in color the suitability or hazard after applying a neutral, numerical weighing scheme. Influence factors may be initially topographic data as well as layers of a GIS inventory, such as zoning, geologic or any environmentally sensitive component.

Creative application of design tools is Alpentech's trademark. Over 30,000 acres of Utah's mountains are being analyzed by Alpentech at this time with focus on:

• Zoning
• Landscape integration
• Privacy
• Environmental quality
• Ski slope and other recreation accessibility

Publications:

During the 2003 and 2004 OITAF-NACS Symposiums, held in Anchorage and Vail respectively, Alpentech presented information on measuring trail capacity. We demonstrated the history of skiing in view of the requirements for higher speed and higher capacity lifts as well as the mix of various forms of gliding and jumping that have become a part of the sport. As much as the joy of skiing and riding a mountain remains the strong attraction for visitors to return, creating new trails and playgrounds for other uses will certainly write the next ski industry success story. Alpentech appreciates, and looks forward to, being part of this opportunity.
To read the paper click here.
For more information, please visit the OITAF web site by clicking here.