Really sad news. Here's the full article
The Salt Lake Tribune
Every extreme sports has it's legendary, almost mythical places. For surfers it's places like Mavericks, Jaws, and Teahupoo. For back country skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts that place is known as Chad's gap.
Deep in Utah's Wasatch Mountains and near popular Alta ski area lies this beast. Like many of sports most revered spots, it's been known for it's awesome makes and also it's bone crunching breaks. Nobody knows that better than back country ski legend Tanner Hall. "There's just something about it that you can't find anywhere else. In a way it's the pinnacle of the sport. You can film all the big tricks for videos but it isn't complete if you can't bring it out there." Hall is known for some amazing video parts featuring the gap and also a March 2005 crash that left his feet and spirits broken.
The gap has been scheduled to be torn down by officials at the Alta ski area to make way for new parking, 2 lodges, and a large networking of terrain devoted to beginner and intermediate terrain. Resort General manager Onno Wieringa says "We're really trying to put an emphasis on on learning. We want our resort to be a family destination that really caters to their needs. We wanted to give them a place where they could learn without the being packed into trails with people of all ability levels. We are very excited about this."
Freeskiers launched several protests trying to get Chad's gap labeled as a historical site, but were unsuccessful. The project is scheduled to start as early the beginning of November, with most of the work starting in the mid to late spring.
Though the mythical gap will no longer exist as a place you can visit, if will surely live on in the memories or those die hard enthusiasts who fought to save it.
