Chad's Gap is a backcountry gap located in the

Wasatch Mountains The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the G ...

, approximately northeast of

Alta Ski Area Alta is a ski area in the western United States, located in the town of Alta in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, in Salt Lake County. With a skiable area of , Alta's base elevation is and rises to for a vertical gain of . One of the oldest ski ...

, in northern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. One version of the structure's discovery has it that Chad Zurinskas, a local Utah resident after whom the gap was purportedly named, discovered it as a gap between two piles of

mine tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...

in 1999 and arranged with filmmaker Kris Ostness to make the first successful jump. The first successful jump was done by

Candide Thovex Candide Thovex (born 22 May 1982) is a French professional skier, filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is known for his creative freestyle skiing movies and professional accomplishments. He first caught the attention of the world of outdoor and act ...

Tanner Hall Tanner Hall (born October 26, 1983) is an American freeskier. Biography Hall, nicknamed 'Ski Boss', was born in Kalispell, Montana where he grew up skiing at Big Mountain, now named Whitefish Mountain Resort, starting at age three. He joined ...

aka 'Ski Boss' blew both his ankles to pieces by coming up short on the gap. He recalled it to feel like someone had loaded his ski boots with dynamite. His quote "my ankles are broken, my ankles are broke" has become famous in the snow sports world.

References

External links

* * Mountain passes of Utah Snowboarding Skiing in the United States Wasatch Range Ski jumping in the United States Skiing in Utah {{ski-resort-stub