Salt Lake City: Livability in the 21st Century

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Left to right: Charlie and Dwight Butler, brothers
and co-owners/operators of Wasatch Touring.
Dwight Butler, co-owner of the Avenues neighborhood’s
iconic backcountry skiing, camping and kayaking store
Wasatch Touring, moved to Utah from Minnesota in
1972 after spending a night interlodged at Alta. (On rare
occasions when storms and avalanche danger are extreme,
Little Cottonwood Canyon guests are asked to stay indoors,
a la interlodge. Not nearly as bad as it sounds when you’re
skiing waist deep powder before anyone else the next day.)
But it was Salt Lake City’s mountain convenience that
converted him from a visitor to a resident. “Based on
conditions you can decide in the morning to ski at one
of the resorts, go for a quick tour in the backcountry,
get out the skate skis and hit a groomed track or even ice
climb. And you can be doing any of those things within
thirty minutes of taking off from downtown,” Butler says.
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