Snowboarders Battle Alta Ski Resort for Access in Court

The long-standing clash between skiers and snowboarders continues in Utah.

A group of snowboarding advocates in Utah called Wasatch Equality are again taking Alta Ski Resort to court to remove the ban on snowboarding the resort has held in place since a Federal Judge threw the case out last year.

Citing fair use of Forest Service land the group is arguing that Alta is unfairly discriminating against snowboarders. The resort claims its stance provides skiers a safer, more pleasurable experience that shelters patrons from unwieldily snowboarders, whose sideways stance causes an inherent blind spot, requiring wider, sweeping turns that are a danger to others on the slope.

The court’s position thus far has been to side with the resort stating that the Constitution doesn’t protect the sport of snowboarding and that Alta, operating as a business, has the right to restrict snowboarding.

Wasatch Equality states in opposition that:

“Defendants have transformed public land into a private country club controlled by those exclusive, elitist, and discriminatory views.”

Two other resorts ban snowboarding: Deer Valley in Utah and Mad River Glen in Vermont.

This classic video illustrates the contention between the two species: