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.”

Your correspondent pens this piece in the aftermath of a top ten ski day here in Little Cottonwood. After a foot of fresh on top of seven more feet of fresh on top of a mountain with no people, January 17 th proved to be one of those days where despite how hungry you are you don’t dare stop to eat. Late morning when our valiant ski patrol dropped the rope for Catherine’s it was time to start making laps. Ten laps as it turns out. This is where Canyon Blog would normally insert a few great photos to induce jealousy on the part of the loyal readers of this space. Sadly, they were not to be. Why you ask? Because this writer wasn’t stopping to snap shots because it was just too damn good. And besides, as you’re well aware, photos don’t do justice to epic conditions. The best your correspondent can muster is a few shots on the final run to the house off Powder Ridge via Wildcat lift. Those and one shot of a significant ice beard buildup. Well, here’s one additional shot from Snowbird yesterday when they’d just opened Peruvian lift at around 2pm. Several days of closures had the Peruvian snow primed for tracking even if the wind scour faces were a little crusty. What’s the point of these bragging lines you may wonder. Simply this: The storm cycles are still aligned and the snow gods favoring our little canyon. So you better hop on that plane, get up canyon, and drop your bags in one of our deluxe properties because staying down canyon isn’t going to do you any good when the canyon closes for the next storm. Note on our previous photo challenge: The image on the concrete buttress is actually the last chairlift pole as you ascend the Collins lift.

January is off the charts with powder dropping weekly at rates not measured in decades. The 136 inches recorded in December is the highest total in 40 years for Little Cottonwood. Today the canyon was closed again with Highway 210 blocked by avalanche debris in multiple slide zones. And the howitzers of Alta and Snowbird serve as siren calls to every powder skier within earshot in the pre-dawn hours. But the avalanche artillery is a story for another day… No, faithful readers of Canyon Blog, this month’s installment is all about the pristine powder that lies tantalizingly just beyond the ski area boundary ropes and on the slopes that beckon as you ride Alta’s Supreme Chair or the Mineral Basin lifts. Once again your correspondent has risked life and limb to bring you firsthand reporting of the full Little Cottonwood skiing experience. Though today’s post incorporates Big Cottonwood Canyon for the first time in this space. It all started last Monday when Alta avalanche forecaster/program director Dave “Grom” Richards called Canyon Blog and said, “Let’s go.” “Where?” “Not sure, but you’ll know when you get here,” said the backcountry guide ominously. Canyon Blog’s skied with Grom many times before and one never knows with this guy. So, properly outfitted with avi pack, probe, shovel, beacon and skins we met at Alta and caught the Supreme lift to the top. From there it was a short, but fun, low angle slope ski into Dry Fork which leads to Heber City should one choose to follow it down. Arriving back at the Alta boundary ropes we joined the trekkers hiking the Supreme summit hill to ski Katherine’s, which had just opened. But for us it was a transit toward the pass Sunnyside peak and Mount Wolverine where Grom’s plan was revealed in full. “Let’s drop into Big Cottonwood and we can finish at Brighton,” grinned Grom. Not one to miss out on one upmanship your correspondent added, “Okay, but then we have to hitchhike our way back to Alta.” Agreed, it was off into the white. It should be mentioned here that the terrain, conditions and backcountry experience needed to assess our route and the morning all came into play. Backcountry skiing isn’t something to be taken lightly, and Grom knows all about that having spent his entire career studying snow. But it is something to be experienced. For those readers of this column who enjoy the best lodging in Little Cottonwood, try Snowbird’s backcountry guides https://www.snowbird.com/guiding-tours/backcountry-skiing/ for the experience of a lifetime. That’s because you’ll do it as a ski-in ski-out adventure. As for Grom and your correspondent’s excursion, enjoy this month’s photos that include Canyon Blog’s favorite backcountry critter encounter, the humble porcupine. As for getting back, he’s happy to report that it took a mere two thumbs to arrive in Alta. You have to love skiers, they’ll take pity on anyone, even scruffy middle aged guys.

Greatest Snow on Earth Archives

Blister Review Summit at Snowbird
Blister Review Summit at Snowbird

Blister Review Summit at Snowbird

Canyon Blog joined the Blister Review team on the Snowbird plaza for what proved to be the best gear demo your correspondent ever experienced. To get the inside scoop (and also try some new Faction and Solomon skis) he cornered Blister’s founder Jonathan Ellsworth. Canyon Blog: What is Blister exactly? Jonathan Ellsworth: Our goal is to provide the world’s best consumer products information for all this expensive outdoor equipment. CB: So, how does that work exactly? JE: We do extreme testing year-round, spending up to 30 days with products and then produce a 7-10,000 word summary. I should mention that [...]

CanyonBlog2026-04-17T03:07:55+00:00Interviews, Local Events, Snowbird Utah|

Thank You for Ten Years
Thank You for Ten Years

Thank You for Ten Years

As 2025 comes to a close I am celebrating ten years of posting thoughts, events, and observations about one of the most wonderful and wondrous places I’ve ever known, Little Cottonwood Canyon. Breaking my tradition of always writing in the second person, I thought it appropriate on this occasion to speak in my own first-person voice. On one hand it is hard to believe so much time has passed. At least 1,000 days on skis for me. When considered from another perspective, it’s an eye blink. Where has the time gone? I never seem to know the answer to that [...]

CanyonBlog2025-12-27T02:24:05+00:00Uncategorized|

Spring with Snowbird’s Snow Safety Director
Spring with Snowbird’s Snow Safety Director

Spring with Snowbird’s Snow Safety Director

Your correspondent spent a brilliant powder day this week with Snowbird’s snow safety director Kami to get the latest on spring safety on another 500+ inch year. As spring takes over the slopes of Little Cottonwood, just where do the avalanche dangers lie? Well, outside the bomb throwing and route running they do in the mornings in addition to the RACs (remote avalanche control towers) there are a number of factors to pay attention to. “Mostly we’re looking at pinwheel rollers that you find on sun facing slopes,” said Kami with years of avalanche study and mitigation behind him. “Cliff [...]

CanyonBlog2025-04-06T20:38:02+00:00Outdoors, Uncategorized, Winter|

Silence and Snow
Silence and Snow

Silence and Snow

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 [...]

CanyonBlog2025-01-18T02:08:34+00:00Outdoors, Winter|

OMSG
OMSG

OMSG

Your correspondent pens this piece in the aftermath of a top ten ski day here in Little Cottonwood. After a foot of fresh on top of seven more feet of fresh on top of a mountain with no people, January 17th proved to be one of those days where despite how hungry you are you don’t dare stop to eat. Late morning when our valiant ski patrol dropped the rope for Catherine’s it was time to start making laps. Ten laps as it turns out. This is where Canyon Blog would normally insert a few great photos to induce jealousy [...]

CanyonBlog2024-01-19T20:30:30+00:00Outdoors, Winter|

An “Outside” Perspective on Alta’s Record Storm
An “Outside” Perspective on Alta’s Record Storm

An “Outside” Perspective on Alta’s Record Storm

For followers of Canyon Blog and Little Cottonwood Canyon, you can find a summary of our wild two weeks of storms and avalanches penned by your correspondent in Outside Magazine's online site: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/snow-sports/alta-snowbird-interloge-little-cottonwood-canyon-snowfall/ It was a season full of superlatives and if you can't make it out here before Snowbird shuts down daily operations on May 14th (weekend trams and some lifts will continue beyond that date) your blogger wishes you a wonderful spring and summer.

CanyonBlog2023-04-16T00:31:43+00:00Local Events, Outdoors, Winter|

A Dispatch from the Trenches
A Dispatch from the Trenches

A Dispatch from the Trenches

Well, much as your correspondent hates cliches, this is one for the record books. Snowbird passed its all-time season snowfall record yesterday which was 782”. As of this morning, where Canyon Blog remains trapped in Alta, they’re standing at 805”. And it hasn’t stopped. Alta is sitting on, or rather under, 874”. It was only one week ago today that this space was reporting 764 Alta inches. If public math serves that’s 110” of new in a week. In April. The day before yesterday’s interlodge was one of the top three ski days of this powder hound’s career, someone who [...]

CanyonBlog2023-04-05T17:57:46+00:00Outdoors, Winter|

Drop What You’re Doing (an emergency announcement)
Drop What You’re Doing (an emergency announcement)

Drop What You’re Doing (an emergency announcement)

Rarely does Canyon Blog issue public service announcements, but such are the dire circumstances that it’s demanded of your correspondent in the interests of your health and mental state of mind. With that out of the way, here’s the deal. Whatever you’re doing, and regardless of where, you simply need to stop, book a flight, toss on a few layers of gear, and slap some fiberglass or carbon to the bottom of your feet. As your correspondent writes this (March 29th) Alta is reporting 764” for the season, but that’s simply not going to be true by the time you [...]

CanyonBlog2023-03-31T01:29:04+00:00Outdoors, Winter|

Rush Out Here and Then Slow Down
Rush Out Here and Then Slow Down

Rush Out Here and Then Slow Down

The snow continues to drop in Little Cottonwood Canyon and the skiing is beyond compare. And by that, your correspondent does mean anywhere. Readers of this space are only too familiar with the superiority of Wasatch powder and the fact that leasing one of our properties puts you into a skin-in ski-out experience not available anywhere else. To prove that point your faithful investigative journalist is winging his way to Austria and Norway to compare this season’s snow with other world class destinations. Such is his dedication to his profession, but he digresses and will report back on that when [...]

CanyonBlog2023-03-03T21:35:18+00:00Outdoors, Winter|

Outa Bounds
Outa Bounds

Outa Bounds

January is off the charts with powder dropping weekly at rates not measured in decades. The 136 inches recorded in December is the highest total in 40 years for Little Cottonwood. Today the canyon was closed again with Highway 210 blocked by avalanche debris in multiple slide zones. And the howitzers of Alta and Snowbird serve as siren calls to every powder skier within earshot in the pre-dawn hours. But the avalanche artillery is a story for another day… No, faithful readers of Canyon Blog, this month’s installment is all about the pristine powder that lies tantalizingly just beyond the [...]

CanyonBlog2023-01-12T05:01:53+00:00Local Flavor, Outdoors, Winter|