Cottonwood Canyons Questions

If it's a pow day the best advice I can give you is to try and catch the first bus up, maybe get there a half hour before the first bus because people will line up to catch the first bus. You can usually get on the bus at an earlier stop than Wasatch Blvd and that will increase your odds of getting you a spot too. Historically speaking, any bus after the first bus usually gets caught in traffic on pow days and you'll be pissed sitting in a bus in traffic for 2-3 hours waiting to get freshies. The bus always runs when it snows, unless there's a major accident they'll stop sending new buses up but they're gonna get you down no matter what. If it doesn't snow at all bus is super chill, kinda sucks on a pow day because it adds a bunch of unknowns.

Watch out for rouge trucks taking hard left hand turns into cars.

SkiBum.Watch out for rouge trucks taking hard left hand turns into cars.

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The best part about sitting in traffic heading up LCC is watching the local neighborhood people lose their shit. I remember once the cars were lined up waiting for an avvy to be cleared and this lady couldnt get to her street to go home. She finally lost it, gunned her SUV up the incoming lane past 30 cars then got pulled over. Right at that magical moment they opened the gate and everyone she passed got to drive slowly by as she got a fat ticket for reckless driving.

Getting stuck up there only happens if a ton of snow actually falls that day while skiing. Last season there was a day that started dumping at 11am and I didn’t think much of it but it ended up causing an avalanche in the canyon and tons of snow fell and I was stuck in the canyon until 11pm when the roads finally cleared. Good thing was that the buses came up that night to pick people up and take them down the canyon.

Sorry that was kinda unnecessary but the point is that you don’t get stuck up the canyon that often but on the occasional day it dumps or there are slides in the canyon you can get stuck up there for a bit.

Go from the Midvale station... or regret it.

As someone who grew up at the mouth of little cottonwood, it does suck when you’re just trying to get to or from your house and canyon traffic makes it nearly impossible. I did like driving to school at the U in the opposite direction of the traffic and seeing the line though.

If you live in Utah long enough you eventually learn the “Noon Theory”. There is never any point in going up before noon. If the snow is bad you aren’t missing anything. If it’s a powder day, you just get to let a lot of the people burn themselves out with powder panic before the best parts of the mountain even open. Show up late with fresh legs and low blood pressure when you can ski all the best terrain without waiting for ropes to drop. There are always fresh stashed if you know where to go.

SuspiciousFishThe best part about sitting in traffic heading up LCC is watching the local neighborhood people lose their shit. I remember once the cars were lined up waiting for an avvy to be cleared and this lady couldnt get to her street to go home. She finally lost it, gunned her SUV up the incoming lane past 30 cars then got pulled over. Right at that magical moment they opened the gate and everyone she passed got to drive slowly by as she got a fat ticket for reckless driving.

Way*MoIf you live in Utah long enough you eventually learn the “Noon Theory”. There is never any point in going up before noon.

I can’t claim i’ve lived in utah forever but not gonna agree on this one