In Alta and Little Cottonwood Canyon: Jewel of the Wasatch Mountains, photographer Howie Garber points his lens at a unique and stunning place in northern Utah threatened by catastrophic development. The project contains imagery that Garber has shot over the past 30 years alongside images from nine other photographers, creating a compelling visual statement for saving this special place. His previous book, Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge, published in 2012, was celebrated for capturing the spirit of this mountain range and demonstrating the need for further land conservation. Now, Garber once again tells the story of our relationship with these mountains — the high alpine backdrop and critical watershed for Salt Lake City that have drawn so many to call the Wasatch Front home.

 

Garber’s previous book may be considered his love letter to the Wasatch, and in this latest project, he focuses on its crown jewel, Little Cottonwood Canyon. The canyon cuts through the heart of the central Wasatch and two of the three Wilderness areas in the range, havens for healthy forests and large wildlife populations. Its rugged peaks rise 7,000 feet above the Salt Lake Valley and provide diverse recreation opportunities for hiking, climbing, mountain biking, and both backcountry and resort skiing. Unique weather patterns drop over 500 inches of snow annually, contributing to Utah’s license plates claiming “The Greatest Snow on Earth.” However, due to rapid population growth and the increased popularity of outdoor sports, some fear this special place is being loved to death.

​

 

This major influx in visitation has created severe traffic and transportation challenges that sparked over a decade worth of work to identify potential solutions. In 2023, the Utah Department of Transportation shocked elected officials, citizens, and conservation groups by proposing the longest gondola in the world, an 8-mile-long behemoth through Little Cottonwood Canyon. Through over 50,000 comments during the public input stage, locals made known their concerns over the gondola’s efficacy as a transportation solution as well as its high cost and extreme environmental and visual impacts. The solution also only serves the canyon’s two ski resorts, putting special interests over the need for year round transit for all users. The ensuing battle over the future of Little Cottonwood Canyon was the catalyst for this book project.

​

 

Combining imagery and writing from geologists to former mayors, from economists to ski guides, and from later-in-life transplants to multi-generation Utahns, Garber has curated a compendium of eloquent Wasatch voices that highlight the beauty and wildness of this place. This book is at once a call to action for locals and visitors alike, a history of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and a visual tour of this part of the central Wasatch, a stunning landscape that receives more annual visitors than all five of Utah’s National Parks combined. The resulting pages showcase the importance and fragility of this small canyon and why this “gem of the Wasatch” must be protected from over-development.

 

Book proceeds benefit Friends of Alta, a 5013c organization that has filed a lawsuit challenging the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) decision to install a Gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

​

 

Contributing writers include: Howie Garber, project coordinator; Laura Briefer, MPA, Director of Salt Lake City Public Utilities; William T. Parry, Professor Emeritus at the University of Utah Department of Geology and Geophysics; Allison Jones, Conservation Biologist and Consultant; Grace Tyler, Development Director: Save Our Canyons; Alex Schmidt, public lands activist; Cassie Levitt Dippo, Friends of Alta: President Emerita; Bruce Tremper, retired director of Utah Avalanche Center, author of Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain; Brad Barber, former Economic Adviser to three Utah Governors and Deputy Director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget; Ralph Becker, Mayor of Salt Lake City, 2008–2015; Ayja Bounous, author of Shaped by Snow and Junior Bounous and the Joys of Skiing; and Erme Catino, journalist, educator, and guide.

​

 

Contributing Photographers: Howie Garber, Robert Athey, (Wizard of the Wasatch) , Louis Arevalo, Wray Sinclair, Mary McIntyre, Bruce Tremper, Stephen Trimble, Bryant Olsen, James Zebrack, Wray Sinclair, and Mimi Levitt