The Wasatch Powderbird Guides supposedly keep records of many things (wildlife, explosive duds, etc.) but one of the only documents they are required to actually submit to the Forest Service each year is their Usage Statistics. This probably has more to do with the Forest Service wanting to make sure they aren’t getting cheated on their permit fees than anything.
Courtesy of the Freedom of Information Act, here are the 2008-09 stats:
Some lowlights…
- Number of Explosives Dropped in Tri Canyons Area – 44
- Number of Explosives Dropped in Periphery Areas – 28
- Total flights – 1,619
- Number of skier tourers/snowshoers seen in the year – 408
- Number of snowmobiles seen in the year – 54
- Total number of guests – 907
- Total number of skier days – 730.6
- Total number of Alpine Touring excursions – 0
I thought it was interesting that Salt Lake County’s “Wasatch Canyons Tomorrow” first round online survey results from last spring show only 4 heli-skiers responding compared to;
585 resort skiers/boarders
381 backcountry skiers
239 snowshoers/hikers
99 cross country skiers
http://www.wasatchcanyons.slco.org/html/Survey_Results.html
Just got to work today at the canyons and noticed that WPG are parking a chopper close to redpine with fuel.