One of the great experiences of being in Little Cottonwood Canyon is the opportunity to stop. Not for a bite or beer between runs. And not après ski, per say.
What your correspondent is referring to is the opportunity to merely be in the canyon and feel its presence. That only really happens once you aren’t focusing on some task at hand like loading a chair or gearing up.
In the evenings and mornings there’s a silence in the canyon. Sure, there may be four thousand skiers split between Alta and Snowbird between 10 and 2, but outside that window the canyon either empties out or the humans are all indoors.
One of Canyon Blog’s favorite things is to walk about and take things in. That includes things you can experience by omission, such as noise. Put another way, its absence. It’s peacefully quiet here during those times.
To have this experience requires that you not be focused on the madness of the crowds or traffic. And to turn off your computer and put down that ever demanding device that runs your life: the modern smart phone.
So come for the skiing or riding certainly. But leave with something else, the experience of stopping time for just a bit and, to quote Paul Simon, enjoy “the sound of silence.”