The twisty-turny roads of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons can be a challenge for drivers. Enter the Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) legendary ski bus service, which is increasing its ridership and routes to Utah’s resorts. To learn more, Last Chair grabbed veteran UTA ski bus driver Doug Malmborg for a ride on the 972 line up to Solitude and Brighton. Malmborg shared his vast knowledge of the UTA ski bus service, plus some fascinating ski and mining history that he has gleaned growing up in the Cottonwoods.
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A driver for over a decade, logging over a million accident-free miles, Malmborg is now a manager of rail operations for UTA. But he’s most at home in the canyons, where his ancestors were hard rock miners, and he grew up as a skier. We climbed onto a colorful ski and snowboard-wrapped bus at the Wasatch Boulevard and 6400 South Park-and-Ride, grabbed a seat, and listened as Malmborg took us on a tour of the canyon that has been his backyard for decades.
“This is one of my favorite canyons on Earth,” said Malmborg. “It's absolutely beautiful. It has a special place in my heart. My family has a lot of history in this canyon.”
UTA, Utah’s public transit system, is in the business of moving people from students to workforce and, in the winter time, skiers and snowboarders. It began its legendary ski bus service in 1975. Today, it provides transportation to seven Utah resorts from Sundance to the Cottonwoods and on up to Snowbasin and Powder Mountain.
The UTA ski bus is unique compared to traditional transit service down in the valley. Drivers get special training to help them manage winter driving conditions, and buses are equipped with automatic chains, transmission brakes, special gear ratios, and tires that are compliant with Utah’s traction laws.
Across its statewide network that serves 79% of Utah’s population, over 40 million ride UTA annually. Over the past three seasons, ridership on the ski bus routes alone has grown by over 5% to 412,000 riders per season. Working in partnership with resorts, UTA is drawing an even bigger focus on service for resort employees to reduce the number of cars in the Cottonwoods. This season, UTA is offering early service up Little Cottonwood on its new CS1 route, specially designed for early-up employees and skiers, and switching to route CS2 for additional afternoon returns.
On a gorgeous bluebird day in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Malmborg gave us an insightful tour from Jaws to Storm Mountain through the S-Turn, and on up to the Lost Emma Mine, we were treated to a dialogue only a veteran local could provide.
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Driver training is rigorous. Everyone starts on more traditional routes, with a six-week training period, then six months operating a bus before they can move into ski bus training. Their ski bus education covers operational aspects unique to ski buses, such as driving in harsh conditions and defensive driving. If you're interested in a career with UTA, click here!
As we passed through Reynolds Flats, Malmborg pointed out the trailhead to Donut Falls. There’s a UTA ski bus stop there to allow backcountry skiers, hikers, and snowshoers to recreate.
Pulling into Solitude, a group of skiers hopped out of the bus. From the UTA bus stop at Solitude, it’s only a few feet up the stairs and onto the Moonbeam Express or to pick up a coffee at Moonbeam Lodge.
“Complete convenience,” said Malmborg. “In my opinion, taking the bus is much more convenient. One of the things that we run into on a daily basis is the parking lots fill up . People end up having to park on the highway. How great is it to just get dropped off at the front door?”
While we happened to be traveling on a bluebird day, Malmborg talked about the vital cross-agency communication that helps keep things running smoothly when snow starts dumping. There are monthly planning meetings between UTA, UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation), along with all of the police agencies in the region. UTA is constantly in touch with weather forecasting services to plan ahead for the impact of storms, devising an operational plan for every day.
The mid-day sunshine cast a glow on the ridgeline from the top of Great Western all the way to the Milly Express as our UTA driver George pulled into Brighton. As more skiers climbed out of the bus, Malmborg spoke with pride as he talked about the 44,000 riders per month who rode UTA ski bus service.
“I’m most proud of our ridership,” said Malmborg. “The ski bus is one of our highest ridership routes.”
The bus was quieter as we headed back down Big Cottonwood to the valley. Malmborg called out more points of interest as we headed to the park-and-ride to pick up another enthusiastic group of skiers and riders.
This episode of Last Chair captures a fun morning on a bluebird day on the iconic UTA ski bus. Veteran UTA driver Doug Malmborg gave us an amazing tour while he talked with knowledge and passion about a better way to get up to the resorts. All I could do was think of how many cars were replaced with every skier or rider who boarded the ski bus.
SKI BUS TIPS AND TRICKS
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Want to get a head start and snag a good seat on the Cottonwoods ski busses? While you can board at the park-and-rides near the mouth of Big or Little Cottonwood Canyons, consider getting on at the Midvale-Fort Union or Historic Sandy stations.
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Do you have a season pass or Ikon Pass? Use it to get free fare!
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Download and use the Transit app! It will give you updated real-time schedules and bus tracking, and allow you to buy a fare if you need it.
How to Ride the Ski Bus
UTA’s ski bus service carries tens of thousands of skiers direct to resorts up Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon, as Last Chair explored with UTA’s Doug Malmborg. But it also provides service in Utah Country (Provo) to Sundance, and in Weber and Davis Counties (Ogden) to Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. You can learn more about ski bus service here.
Transit Mobile App
You can use the Transit App for the best mobile trip planning and fare payment experience. Click here to download UTA's preferred app for trip planning, real-time tracking, multimodal connections and fare payment. You can also use the app to subscribe to service alerts and get notified about detours and service disruptions.
Transcript
|00:00:01| Tom Kelly: Welcome back to Last Chair the Ski Utah Podcast. As you know, if you're a loyal listener, I love doing podcasts remotely. We have been down in a 12-foot deep snow pit. We have been up on the top of mountains in remote locations. We've been in distilleries before, but today we're on the UTA Ski bus. We're on the 972 heading up to Brighton. And my guest today, Doug Malmborg from UTA. And Doug, thanks for joining us on Last Chair.
|00:00:32| Doug Malmborg: Well, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
|00:00:33| Tom Kelly: Beautiful day you got for us here today right.
|00:00:35| Doug Malmborg: Couldn't get much better.
|00:00:36| Tom Kelly: You know, I got to say we came up to the park and ride at 6400 South. I think it is. Looking at the new buses, you've got some really cool ski and snowboard wrapped buses this year.
|00:00:47| Doug Malmborg: We do.
|00:00:49| Tom Kelly: We're going to talk about what those buses do as we go through the podcast here. But just to set the scene a little bit, Doug, tell us we're pulling out of the park and ride and tell us a little bit about where we are and where we're heading on the 972.
|00:01:02| Doug Malmborg: So this is the Big Cottonwood Canyon park and ride at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. We're heading up to Brighton and Solitude. This is one of my favorite canyons on Earth. It's absolutely beautiful. It has a special place in my heart. My family has a lot of history in this canyon, and I'm excited to talk about it.
|00:01:24| Tom Kelly: Yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about your own family history here. I think that's one of the things about the Cottonwoods is just that personal connection that that people have. We were in Little Cottonwood Canyon on one of our episodes about a month ago talking about avalanche mitigation. And, you know, just everybody has these great Cottonwood stories. And we'll get to two more years as we go along the bus pulling out of the station right now. But before we do, we're going to talk more about you, Doug. But tell us a little bit about UTA. What's the mission and the vision for those who may not reside in Utah? What is the Utah Transit Authority?
|00:01:59| Doug Malmborg: So. Utah Transit authority. Our mission is we move you. So to me, what that means is that we get to make a meaningful difference and improvement in other people's lives. So, yeah, if you're a college student, we'll give you transportation to get to and from school. We also a lot of high school and middle school, and even as young as elementary students actually ride our bus service to get to school. If you're a person that has a disability that prevents you from driving, um, we have paratransit service. It's a door-to-door service. We'll pick you up at your house. We'll drop you off at your destination. If you're someone who wants to go up and enjoy skiing, we'll give you a ride up the canyon. It's a safe option. We have special buses. They're equipped with chains, transmission brakes, different gear ratios, they're compliant with the traction laws. So if you have a car that doesn't have four-wheel drive or chains, you know, we're a great option for you. We drive economic development. So for every dollar that's invested in public transit, we return over $5 in economic development. A perfect example of this is the S-Line in SugarHouse. We opened it in 2013. Much of the area that we went through was basically a barren, abandoned industrial wasteland. Since then, there's actually been $2 billion of investment into that area. If you look at pictures of it from 2013 to now, it's unbelievable the growth that public transit development has brought to that area.
|00:03:48| Tom Kelly: You know, I'm a bit of a transit nut myself. I love taking the bus. I live up in Park City, and I actually use the High Valley Transit service back and forth to Salt Lake when I can. We're going to talk a lot about the ski bus, and that's just one small little nugget of all of the programs that UTA has. How much of the state are you serving in population wise?
|00:04:08| Doug Malmborg: So we actually serve as 79% of the state's population.
|00:04:13| Tom Kelly: And I know that, again, we're looking at the Cottonwood Canyon ski buses here today. But you've got service to a lot of other resorts as well.
|00:04:21| Doug Malmborg: Yeah we do. So, we have in Utah County, we have ski bus service to Sundance and then up north, we actually have ski bus service to Powder Mountain and Snowbasin as well.
|00:04:34| Tom Kelly: I've actually used that out of Ogden. And I happen to be a big Ogden fan. You can go back and listen to our podcast with Roosters, up at the bar there, a couple of years ago. But I love getting up there. And the ski bus actually is a really viable solution to get up to Ogden and stay downtown and then just take the bus up to Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. Yes. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. What can you tell me about, you know, some of the figures of how many people actually ride the buses and the trains that UTA has in service.
|00:05:10| Doug Malmborg: So our annual ridership is about 35 million.
|00:05:14| Tom Kelly: Yeah, that's pretty good.
|00:05:18| Doug Malmborg: So 2024, it jumped to 40.
|00:05:19| Tom Kelly: Oh, wow. Yeah. So it's jumped up to what, 40? Wow.
|00:05:22| Doug Malmborg: 40. Yeah.
|00:05:22| Tom Kelly: 40 million. That's a lot of folks. Now with this, with the ski bus service again, we're on the 972, which goes up to Solitude and Brighton and back. Your service. … I know it's too early in the season to get a sense of it, but what was your service like a year ago?
|00:05:39| Doug Malmborg: So, our service this year is pretty similar. Probably the biggest change to our service … so the 984 and the 972 are running the equivalent service to last year. This year, the biggest changes, we're having CS1 and CS2, which are being operated by contractors. So, the CS1 is mainly for employees, early birds, and skiers. So it runs from Midvale to Snowbird and Alta every 30 minutes. And it's for about two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. And then, in the middle of the day, it switches to CS2, and the CS2 runs from the 6200 South Wasatch Park and Ride, where we boarded the bus up to Snowbird and Alta, and it runs every 30 minutes.
|00:06:31| Tom Kelly: And is that primarily geared towards employees who need to get up really early, or can skiers take advantage of this as well so.
|00:06:38| Doug Malmborg: Anyone can take advantage of it? It kind of is geared towards getting the employees up to the resorts to open the resorts. Yeah.
|00:06:45| Tom Kelly: Let's talk about the employees for a little bit, because I think that's something that most of us don't think about. You know, we just want to get up on the mountain with our skis or our snowboards and we want to get on the snow, but in order for that to get opened up, you need to get a lot of employees up there. And it's a challenge when you have to get hundreds and hundreds of employees up there, all in their personal cars. So, how has UTA really helped to provide an opportunity for the resorts to get their employees up there?
|00:07:11| Doug Malmborg: So the employees, and actually all of the season pass holders, are able to ride this UTA ski bus for free. Their pass covers their fare. And that actually, that kind of brings up another topic that I wanted to talk about. So parking at the resorts. Parking at the resorts is one of the biggest issues. On an average day, there's thousands more vehicles attempting to go up the canyon and park than there is parking stalls. So by us providing the service to get the employees and the customers up to the resorts, um, we're helping to reduce congestion in the canyon and we're also helping to reduce parking congestion. It makes a huge difference.
|00:07:55| Tom Kelly: We're going to come back to the ski bus in just a minute. But I wanted to not get too far along before we introduce you to folks. So, can you give us a little bit of background, Doug, and what's your current role with UTA?
|00:08:10| Doug Malmborg: So my current role at UTA is I'm the assistant manager of rail operations at Trax.
|00:08:15| Tom Kelly: And so you oversee the whole, you're among the team that oversees the Trax operation, the light rail, and in the city.
|00:08:23| Doug Malmborg: Yes, yes. And I've been in this capacity for about three years. Yeah.
|00:08:26| Tom Kelly: And you spent some time driving a canyon bus though, too, right?
|00:08:29| Doug Malmborg: I did, so I actually started at UTA in 1999. I operated for 11 years as a bus operator. During that time I was a trainer also, and I spent much of my time driving in the Cottonwood Canyons in service, operating a ski bus. I logged over a million miles accident-free, and much of it was actually in the canyons.
|00:08:53| Tom Kelly: Let's just looking around right now, this is such a gorgeous drive of Big Cottonwood. And if you're familiar with the drive, we're kind of in the narrow section right now. And actually, Doug, you know this canyon better than anybody. Give us a little play-by-play on where we are right now in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
|00:09:09| Doug Malmborg: So, we we actually had just passed Storm Mountain. So Storm Mountain can present some challenges. The geography of it can be difficult to have communications either by radio or by cell phone. We came through an area where there's … the rocks are really close. We actually at UTA, we actually call that area the Jaws. But I'll tell you, if you go through Jaws, you know, in a 40-foot long, eight-foot wide ski bus, and you cross another ski bus in there, there's, … it's terrifying. I just put it that way. So right now we're actually in the S-curve. So there's some great trailheads here.
|00:09:58| Tom Kelly: Yeah. This is a great trailhead. It's at Mill D I think. Mill D I believe. So here you've got a little waterfalls on the other side of the street. But to go back to Qaws, I've never heard that before. And now forever. I'm going to think about that when I drive through that. So. So that's down Canyon just a little bit from where we are now in the S-curve.
|00:10:17| Doug Malmborg: Yes, yes. It's just above Storm Mountain. And, so there's actually a couple of things that make that area a little bit scary. So, um, as you're coming up into the jaws, you can't see around them, so you can't see what's coming at you around the road. And then there's also a bridge where the river goes underneath it just to the east of it. And that area is the first to freeze. So I've seen a lot of cars spin out and lose control in that area.
|00:10:44| Tom Kelly: We were actually up here with our son and I think it was early December. It was a snowy day, and we hadn't had a whole lot of those, and it was just interesting watching the people with without the proper tires trying to get in and out of that trailhead. More on that story later. But let's get back, Doug, to your history. So you grew up actually in the proximity of the Cottonwood Canyons, right?
|00:11:08| Doug Malmborg: I've lived in Sandy for the majority of my life.
|00:11:11| Tom Kelly: So as a young boy growing up in Sandy, were you and your family recreating up in the Cottonwoods frequently?
|00:11:18| Doug Malmborg: Yes we were. So, um, um, when I was young, my dad actually got me some ski lessons up at Alta. And the ski instructors name, believe it or not, was Joseph Smith. So, I actually learned how to ski from a ski instructor named Joseph Smith.
|00:11:34| Tom Kelly: And I imagine you used that story a lot.
|00:11:36| Doug Malmborg: I've used it a few times.
|00:11:38| Tom Kelly: For those who may not be familiar with who Joseph Smith is in Utah culture, can you give us a little 411?
|00:11:45| Doug Malmborg: He was the prophet and founder of the Mormon religion.
|00:11:49| Tom Kelly: Yeah. So, a really good person to have as a ski instructor. Where did you spend most of your time skiing?
|00:11:55| Doug Malmborg: So growing up, I spent most of my time skiing at Alta and at Brighton.
|00:11:59| Tom Kelly: Yeah. And did you over the years, did you build up any preferences for the resorts you really like to go to?
|00:12:06| Doug Malmborg: I think if I was to say so, as I was growing up, most of my friends were snowboarders, even though I was a skier. And back then, Brighton was the one resort that really kind of embraced snowboarding and allowed snowboarding and encourage snowboarding. So we actually, me and my homies would spend most of our time skiing at Brighton. Ironically, our parents would take us and drop us off at the ski bus park and rides, and we would ride the ski bus up.
|00:12:37| Tom Kelly: And so it is a great way to go, and I like to do it whenever I can. Again, I live up in Park City, but it's it's easy enough to just drop on down to the park and ride like it's 6400 South on Wasatch Boulevard and and pick up a bus.
|00:12:52| Doug Malmborg: All right. Hey. So, real quick. Sorry. I don't want to cut you off, but as we're coming up here, see where this gate is and this road. So just to the east of it, there's a mine shaft, and that's the poison gas mine. So there was about five or six miners that lost their lives in that mine back in the day.
|00:13:08| Tom Kelly: Oh, I see it. I've never noticed that all the time I've been coming up here, I've never noticed it. Yeah.
|00:13:14| Doug Malmborg: Uh, another interesting mining story. So sorry. Let me. So, my ancestors actually mined the Cottonwood Canyons. So they came to the United States in about 1900, immigrated from Sweden. So my family's actually been skiing the Wasatch for over 100 years before there were resorts. They were skiing to get in and out of their minds.
|00:13:38| Tom Kelly: You know, I think everybody who has skied here has a sense of awareness of the importance of the mining culture, the mining heritage that we have here. But it does go deep into your family roots. And you know what is what does it mean to, you know, come from the lineage of people who have actually worked these mines up in the Cottonwood Canyons?
|00:13:59| Doug Malmborg: I mean, I think for me, it's a source of pride. I mean, they came here. The English wasn't their first language. They were immigrants. They were hardworking. And they provided for their families by, mining in these beautiful canyons.
|00:14:17| Tom Kelly: Yeah, it just is an amazing place. Let's get back to the buses now. One of the things when you were talking about Jaws, that narrow section that we came through, uh, a few miles back, I got to thinking about training. You're taking these buses into some pretty, uh, challenging terrain, to say the least. Yeah. What's the training that the drivers go through?
|00:14:40| Doug Malmborg: So their initial training is six weeks long, and then after that, then we have them, um, operate for a minimum of six months to a year before we give them ski bus training. And then it's a couple of additional days of ski bus training. Real quickly as we're just passing Roy Newman's mine here, the blind miner. We'll talk about that a little bit more after this training. So, they get hands-on experience in the canyon driving the equipment. The ski buses are different. So like, they've got on-demand chains, so they've actually got a toggle switch on the dashboard. And so as long as the bus is moving, the operator just lifts the cover and flips the toggle switch. And then there's, uh, two hydraulic arms with a wheel that has chains bunched around them. And so the hydraulic arms drop, and then the other will starts to spin, and it actually throws the chains under the tires. They have to be trained on how to drive in the harsh conditions. Um, they have to be trained differently on defensive driving. There's just a lot that goes into being able to drive a bus up and down the canyon.
|00:15:54| Tom Kelly: When you began driving Ski Bus a few years ago. Did you have the automated chains, or did you have to get out onto the bus and put them on?
|00:16:01| Doug Malmborg: No. They as the entire time I've been here, we've had automated chains.
|00:16:04| Tom Kelly: Yeah. I harken back to the days I remember our first trip out to the mountains. I grew up in the Midwest, and, we had one farm boy with us in our group of skiers. And we knew that he would know how to put chains on, so we passed it to him. But it is interesting. So now that the drivers can just flip a switch and that can put the chains on.
|00:16:25| Doug Malmborg: Yes. So they don't actually wrap around the tires. They just spin under the tires. Yeah.
|00:16:29| Tom Kelly: Let's talk about canyon access. And I know that UDOT is stepping up its enforcement of the tire law, the traction law, this year. I imagine that for you as a bus driver, it's it's challenging when you have cars that are in the canyon and not really well suited for the conditions.
|00:16:46| Doug Malmborg: Yeah. It only takes one person to ruin it for everybody. A lot of the rental car companies, um, their rental cars, aren't equipped with four-wheel drive snow tires, chains, things like that. UDOT has been working heavily with them, and they've been in the last few years. They've made some drastic improvements. But also, if you're not familiar with driving in the canyon and you get up here and it's a white knuckle day, that can be a really challenging experience. Yeah. So, UTA, we're in favor of the traction law. I think it's a great thing. And, there's a lot that goes into the planning for the canyon operations during the winter, and there's a lot of partnerships and coordination between different departments and agencies.
|00:17:33| Tom Kelly: We're going to take a quick short break in just a minute. But why don't you, Doug, give us a little update on where we are now. By the way, I just have to before I turn it over to you. It is such a gorgeous day. It is one of those days where the road is clear. Traffic is light. There's. There's fresh-fallen snow on the boughs of the trees. It's just gorgeous up here. But where are we right now in Big Cottonwood?
|00:17:53| Doug Malmborg: So right now, we're in Reynolds Flats. So if you look off here to the right, that's, um, you'll see the trailhead that goes up to Donut Falls. We actually have a UTA ski bus stop here also, so that backcountry skiers can have access to our ski bus from this location. As we're coming up here, one of the things I want to mention is the Spruces won't be that much further down the road. We're probably about a mile down the road from the Spruces and then from the driveway that pulls into the spruces. My family had a mine. So it was my great Uncle Charlie's mine, and its name is the Lost Emma, but it's commonly referred to as the Malmborg mine. And there's a road, and I believe the road's actually closed now and is starting to overgrow, but it's exactly one mile from the driveway to pull in and out of the Spruces.
|00:18:50| Tom Kelly: Yeah, this is really fascinating. So I know we're heading up to Solitude and Brighton here today, but there's lots of other activities that you can do. Yeah. Snowshoes on feet on skis.
|00:19:01| Doug Malmborg: Yes. And also in the summertime, the hiking up here is just incredible. So yes, we're just passing the Spruces right now. As I was growing up, we did a lot of camping at the Spruces and Memorial Day weekend every year. That's where you would have found us.
|00:19:16| Tom Kelly: So I imagine on Memorial Day there's still snow.
|00:19:19| Doug Malmborg: It was cold and we were usually tenting it. I remember it was for sure getting below freezing at night most of the time.
|00:19:26| Tom Kelly: So. Well, we're going to take a short show break and we'll be right back with Doug Malmberg. And we're going to talk more about the ski bus service, including some of the special challenges, particularly over in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We'll be right back on Last Chair.
|00:19:40| Tom Kelly: And we are back on Last Chair. It is a gorgeous day in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I'm looking at the fresh powder up on all of the ridgelines. We're with Doug Mahlberg from Utah Transit Authority. And Doug, we've just pulled into our first major resort stop. Take us through the entrance to Solitude.
|00:20:00| Doug Malmborg: We're pulling into Solitude. Entry one – the Moonbeam Lodge parking lot. You'll see the buses circling around here. One of the great perks about riding a ski bus is we'll drop you off right at the front door of the resort. So, as you see, we're. As we're pulling in, you'll see that our bus stop is right here, right next to the lodge. I mean, just front door service. If you're purchasing a day ticket, you'll get off of the bus and walk fifty, one hundred feet over to the ticket office, and then you'll be getting right up on the mountain.
|00:20:34| Tom Kelly: This has to be one of the most convenient ski bus stops anywhere in the country. Literally, as we pull into the stop here in the Moonbeam lot, we are no more than 30 feet from the Moonbeam Express. You just have to go up one flight of metal stairs, and you are on the lift. This is convenience.
|00:20:54| Doug Malmborg: Yes. Complete convenience. In my opinion, taking the bus is much more convenient. This is one of the reasons, um, one of the things that we run into on a daily basis is the parking lots fill up. People end up having to park on the highway. Um, how great is it to just get dropped off at the front door?
|00:21:14| Tom Kelly: Yeah. No, I love this. It's one of the reasons I like to take the ski bus up here when I can. Okay. I want to shift gears a little bit. I want to talk about Little Cottonwood Canyon. We've done a number of last year's podcasts over there talking about the avalanche danger and the mitigation work that UDOT does, and that the resorts do. You are taking these buses up there every day, and when there's a big powder dump, that means more challenges for the drivers. So what special precautions and planning goes into taking the buses out, particularly on those really nasty powder days.
|00:21:48| Doug Malmborg: So I think to answer that question, um, I'm going to start with a little bit broader and then narrow it down a little bit. So, we actually have monthly road meetings for Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyon. Um, all of the major stakeholders are there. So UDOT avalanche, UDOT highway, the Forest Service, Unified Fire, Salt Lake County Sheriff's and Unified police, Sandy City police, Cottonwood Heights police. The list just goes on and on and on. I'll, for sure, if I don't stop now, I'll miss somebody. But so we really plan year-round on how we're going to provide the service, how we're going to make improvements, um, how we're going to keep everybody safe. Uh, and you'll see, like these delineators here, preventing vehicles coming down the canyon from being in the left lane, which provides vehicles to be able to turn out and turn into a lane that's unoccupied by traffic. I have to give a shout-out to Jake Brown from UDOT. That's something he really pushed. And it's they have those little Cottonwood Canyon also, and those have made huge differences. So that's on the broader spectrum. That's where we're at on a day to day spectrum. We're constantly checking the weather reports. We're in constant communications with other stakeholders, devising a plan for the day. Um, one of the biggest challenges for anybody getting into the canyon on a big, heavy snow day is traffic. Uh, and so in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the police departments actually help us with a bypass service so that we'll get a police escort that will take you up to the front of the line to get into the canyon. From personal experience, I can tell you that that can save you at least an hour to an hour and a half. That's another perk of riding the ski bus. You'll get to the front of the line, coming into the traffic or coming into the canyon.
|00:23:51| Tom Kelly: You know the piece that you mentioned that you're working with UDOT's Avalanche mitigation team, but when you go into the canyons, are your drivers are all engaged in what the avalanche forecast is. So they kind of know what they're getting into on any given day.
|00:24:07| Doug Malmborg: Yes. And we're we're in constant communication with them. When we got on the bus, you met one of our ski supervisors. Damien was there. So we constantly when we're running service, we have a canyon supervisor, either in Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, or somewhere along Wasatch. And so they're really making judgment calls. Ski bus service has a lot of challenges, and it can have interruptions. So they're making split-second decisions on rerouting buses. Is it safe to go? Is it? Um. Do we need to turn some buses around? If we've been delayed due to traffic or canyon closures, they're there to kind of put all the pieces together and put the buses back on schedule, so I think that that's a huge part of it.
|00:24:57| Tom Kelly: I want to just give a shout-out to our driver today. His name is George. He's been driving for about a year with Utah. He's given us a nice, comfortable drive up here. I want to maybe put some perspective on what Utah does with the Cottonwood Ski bus service. Uh, compared to other resorts around the country and just the challenges that you have here. You know, I'm thinking about other places I've ridden buses. Uh, a good example over in Colorado going to Vail, there's a good bus network that runs up and down I-70. But I think what you have here in Utah with the cottonwoods is really a unique, uh, it's a unique transportation system that's really unmatched anywhere else. Yeah.
|00:25:41| Doug Malmborg: UTA is really unique, especially for the size of our city. We have an expansive rail network. We've won a lot of awards. We've won a lot of awards recently. Our ski service is really unique. One of the things that I'm the most proud of is our ridership. So, on average, we're carrying 44,000 riders per month. So think about that. Obviously, they wouldn't all be single.
|00:26:08| Tom Kelly: This is on ski bus?
|00:26:09| Doug Malmborg: This is only on ski bus. So the way ski bus fits into the rest of our service is, um. The ski bus would be one of our highest ridership routes. I believe if it ran year-round, it would be in our top ten highest ridership. So it's got really high ridership.
|00:26:32| Tom Kelly: We're pulling into Brighton now. Why don't you give us the rundown here?
|00:26:35| Doug Malmborg: Yeah. So we're in the Brighton Loop. We just passed, past Silver Lake or the Solitude Nordic Center. As we're cresting the hill here, you can see the the main parking lot here at Brighton. So, we've got Millie over to the right. We've got Majestic, Great Western, and Crest Express over to the left.
|00:26:58| Tom Kelly: And I have to say, the skiing looks pretty good. It does. I should have brought skis with today, but we'll be out here soon enough. Uh, so this is the turnaround? Yes. And then we're just going to head back down, right?
|00:27:10| Doug Malmborg: Yes, yes. As we're coming up here, you'll see that our ski bus stop is over here, kind of by a maintenance shack, but again, very similar to Solitude. We're no more than about 100 yards away from their main lodge, where we drop you off, much.
|00:27:26| Tom Kelly: Like we saw at solitude, where we're right next to the moonbeam lift. Easy access to the lifts here. We've talked about a lot of different aspects of the canyons ski bus service offered by UTA. Do you have a few tips and tricks you could leave with us?
|00:27:42| Doug Malmborg: Yeah, some tips and tricks. I would say catch the bus as early as possible. And also when I say that it's not only time, but it's also catch it at one of the first stops during our ski service. Sometimes, our buses will get white-lined by the time they get to the mouth of the canyon. So if you were to get on the bus, let's say at Midvale Fort Union Station or at historic Sandy Trax station, you'll be the first person on the bus. You're very likely to get a seat. You'll help reduce congestion getting into the canyons because instead of driving to the mouth of the canyon and being part of the problem, you're being part of the solution by driving down to the track station.
|00:28:29| Tom Kelly: Doug, one of the things I wanted to talk about was the transit app. I've become a big user of the transit app, which offers lots of opportunities. Tell us about it.
|00:28:37| Doug Malmborg: So, the transit app is a great tool. It's got schedules, real-time tracking information. You can pay for your fare on the transit app. And so when you get to the bus, you don't have to worry about having cash fare. It can all be paid for through the transit app. It's an awesome tool.
|00:28:59| Tom Kelly: And the transit app allows you to see real-time bus tracking.
|00:29:03| Doug Malmborg: Yes, yes. So you can actually see where your bus current location is. So, like if you get to the stop and you're wondering where's my bus? You can just pull up the transit app and you can see, oh yeah, it's going to be here in five minutes because it's, you know, a mile away or whatever the case may be.
|00:29:18| Tom Kelly: On what you think is your last run at Brighton, you can look at it and say, I think I have time for one more lap, right? Yeah, exactly. I love that, uh, I love the stories that you've told coming up the canyon. Uh, the bus service has a great history. It's a unique service. How did how does this evolve? Who are some of the individuals that have been really instrumental in getting the ski service going at the Utah resorts?
|00:29:45| Doug Malmborg: So I'm glad you asked. So, um, I got to give a special shout-out to Bill Humphreys. Bill Humphreys has been absolutely instrumental in making ski bus service what it is today. Um, back in the day, he trained me to be a ski bus operator. He was the canyon supervisor for many years. He's done an amazing job coordinating with our other departments and stakeholders. Really gone above and beyond. Outside of the box thinking that's just brought us to where we are today at a much better ski service than when we originally started. So, UTA was actually formed in 1970. Um, I don't know exactly the first year that we ran ski buses, but I know that back in the day, the ski buses would actually make one. The operator would make one trip up in the morning, and then they would hang out up here in the canyon, and then they would head back down the canyon. And I know at one point they actually used some of the ski bus operators would actually ski during the day.
|00:30:48| Tom Kelly: I was going to ask that, but I wasn't sure. So they would really ski.
|00:30:51| Doug Malmborg: Yeah, they had to put a stop to that because they had a few ski bus operators drive the bus up and get injured on the mountain. So yeah, that's a problem. Yes, that's a problem.
|00:31:01| Tom Kelly: Well it's great. It's great to hear that history. I want to kind of wrap it up before we get to our Fresh Tracks section, to just talk a little bit about the pride you have in working for Utah. You spent most of your career working for UTA. What does it mean to you to be a part of this team?
|00:31:16| Doug Malmborg: So UTA has been an absolute amazing place to work. Um, to answer this question, I'm going to have to go just slightly off-topic, but I'll get there, I promise. So, working in public transit was not my life path. I didn't see this being my life path. Before working at UTA, I worked in sales in the auto industry, and then I was a mortgage broker for a while, and I was tired of having 100% straight commission jobs. And, my wife said to me, I had a neighbor that worked at UTA and he really liked it, and I heard they're hiring, so I think you should go and apply. And so I basically did it thinking nothing was going to come of it just to make my wife happy. So I applied, and I got the job not knowing what a great job it was going to be. So I started here, and when I got here, I absolutely fell in love with UTA. It has been one of the greatest experiences working here. UTA truly cares. They truly want everybody to be successful. You know, I started as an operator and worked my way up through the ranks. I've had many great mentors along the way.
|00:32:42| Doug Malmborg: Bill Humpheys was one of them. Another one that I'd like to mention is Andres Coleman. They saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. Took me under their wing and mentored me and helped me grow as an individual. I talked about it earlier when we were talking about the UTA mission. But what a great thing to be able to come to work every day and make a meaningful difference and improvement in other people's lives. So, you know, our ski service makes a meaningful difference in improvement. It helps parents get their kids up to the mountain. It helps skiers that don't want to drive, don't want to park up in the canyon a way to get up to the canyon. Um, it makes a meaningful difference and improvement for the ski resorts. Um, it Mediates traffic, it alleviates parking congestion. So, for me, I'm truly honored to be able to serve our community and make a meaningful difference. In the many years that I've lived in Salt Lake County and travel up and down the canyon. We're really we're at a crisis with traffic. We can't build our way out of this. Transit is the answer. So I'm super excited to be part of the solution.
|00:34:05| Tom Kelly: Do you miss I know you've moved on from driving ski bus up the canyon. Do you miss that a little bit?
|00:34:10| Doug Malmborg: I do miss it. Uh, and I'll tell you, like, when there's a day that there's a heavy inversion in the valley. What a great thing to be able to get out of the inversion and come up here and see the blue sky and fresh air and, uh, connect with nature. It's just awesome.
|00:34:27| Tom Kelly: As a driver, would you establish relationships or at least understand or become familiar with some of your riders heading up to ski and ride? Yes.
|00:34:35| Doug Malmborg: Yeah. Many, many regular riders that we knew each other on a first-name basis. They would ride all the time, almost every day.
|00:34:44| Tom Kelly: Well, we appreciate you taking us on this tour of Big Cottonwood. We're going to close it out with our last chair segment called Fresh Tracks. And just a few personal questions to wrap it up, but you grew up in the neighborhood of the Cottonwoods. What's your favorite hike in the summertime when all the snow is gone?
|00:35:00| Doug Malmborg: Um, so my favorite hike would be Lisa Falls Trailhead in Little Cottonwood. And the reason why is, that's where I proposed to my wife, and she said, yes.
|00:35:13| Tom Kelly: That's a good one. I do highly recommend that I actually took our grandkids out there this this summer. As a skier, what's your favorite run in … either on the resorts or in the backcountry?
|00:35:25| Doug Malmborg: So I'm an inbound skier only. My all-time favorite … it depends on the day. It has to be the right day. It has to be a powder day. The base has to be over 100 inches. But I'd say it's door number one of get-serious-chutes at Snowbird.
|00:35:42| Tom Kelly: Okay. We'll look forward to seeing you on that one. And then, you know, maybe if you could share an experience that you've had as a bus driver, maybe a fun story from the past.
|00:35:53| Doug Malmborg: Yeah. So, this would have been early to mid-2000. As bad of a storm as I remember. I don't remember the exact total. Just an absolute white-knuckle day. Mid-morning, Maybird slid and covered the road. The road was closed basically all day. We had one bus that was up at Alta, and then we had 12 other buses, and they called us to go and evacuate the canyon. And I remember they lined us up on State Road 210, just outside of the Little Cottonwood Canyon Park and Ride, and I was the lead bus, and they opened up the canyon for us. We followed a snowplow. We got up there, and in the middle of us getting up there. So when we get into the parking lots, we actually couldn't see the cars in the parking lot. The snow was that deep. What we could see is the people that had put their windshield wipers up. We could see their windshield wipers sticking out of the snow. And that's how we knew that there was a car there. While we were up there trying to get everybody loaded and get the canyon evacuated, White Pine slid. And so we ended up being stuck up there overnight. Snowbird put us up in the Cliff Lodge. They fed us. It was a it was a really fun and memorable experience.
|00:37:15| Tom Kelly: I'm just going to piggyback on that as we wrap things up. But you know what you mentioned about Snowbird pitching in and putting you up overnight and feeding you? There's a real camaraderie in these Cottonwood Canyons with the resorts and UDOT, UTA, and all of the other service vendors that provide opportunities for skiers and riders to get up there.
|00:37:35| Doug Malmborg: Yeah. It's unlike anything I've seen anywhere else.
|00:37:40| Tom Kelly: Well, Doug, it has been wonderful having you here. Before we wrap things up. Give folks an idea of where we are as we head down to Canyon.
|00:37:48| Doug Malmborg: So right now we're in Silver Fork. So we just passed the Silver Fork Lodge. It will be coming up on the road that turns off to the Lost Emma here shortly.
|00:38:07| Tom Kelly: And that's your family's mine, right? Yep.
|00:38:09| Doug Malmborg: Right there. That's the road. The the something. That's the road.
|00:38:12| Tom Kelly: Beautiful. Doug, it's been wonderful to have you on last year. Thanks to you to for all of it does to help skiers and riders. And, Doug, thank you for this tour today. I've learned so much about Big Cottonwood as well as about UTA. Thanks for joining us on Last Chair.
|00:38:27| Doug Malmborg: Well, thank you for having me.
