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, Utah, 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 ...

, in northern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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 or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material th ...

in 1999 and arranged with filmmaker

Kris Ostness The kris or is a Javanese culture, Javanese asymmetrical dagger with a distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). The kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade, although ma ...

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 the older brother of snowboarder Mirabelle Thovex. Youth Candide Thovex was born in Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie area of France, and grew up ...

Tanner Hall Tanner Hall may refer to: * Tanner Hall (film) ''Tanner Hall'' is a 2009 drama film, drama film about four girls coming-of-age, coming of age in boarding school. It was written and directed by Tatiana von Fürstenberg and Francesca Gregorini. It ...

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