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Scotts Pass
Scotts Pass from Guardsman Trailhead
Trailhead Guardsman Trailhead
Trailhead Elevation 8,900'
Pass Elevation 9,480'
Total Vertical 600'
Skinning Distance 1.9 miles
Online Map View on wbskiing.com

Scotts Pass is located in upper Big Cottonwood Canyon on the border between Salt Lake County and Summit County. It overlooks Park City's Jupiter chairlift (there is even a ski area trail sign at the pass—boo!). Scotts Pass is on the way to Pinecone Ridge and Scott Hill. The trail to Scotts Pass is popular with snowshoers.

Scotts Pass

Getting to Scotts Pass

Scotts Pass from Guardsman

To reach Scotts Pass, park at the Guardsman winter gate and skin one mile up the road to a right-hand hairpin turn. (Stay near the side of the road to avoid the snowmobilers.) Take the access road which leaves the main road on the left side of this hairpin turn (there is a gate about 200 feet up the access road). Follow that road as it crosses below Scott's Backdoor and arrives at Scotts Pass. Depending on all the variables, it will probably take less than an hour to get to the pass from the Guardsman trailhead.

Returning to the trailhead does require some poling on the flat-ish access and Guardsman roads. This makes this a route little less enjoyable for snowboarders who will probably end up doing some walking.

About the Name

Grammaticians who are concerned that Scott's Backdoor and Scott's Bowl have apostrophes whereas Scotts Pass is missing an apostrophe can relax. The USGS doesn't use apostrophes on names, so I don't when publishing names that appear on USGS maps. However, I do use apostrophes for possessive names that were created by backcountry users. Thus, I'm consistently inconsistent.