making it a popular road cycling challenge. Skiing and snowboarding Little Cottonwood Canyon is home to two ski areas, Snowbird and Alta. Both areas are well known for the amount of snow they receive each year with Alta averaging around 550 inches per year. The canyon is also well known for its backcountry skiing access, with over 300 named backcountry runs including one of the most prominent peaks in the canyon, Mount Superior. Rock climbing The lower third of the canyon is strewn with quartz monzonite, granite, and granodiorite outcroppings, mostly consisting of smooth steep faces, some up to several hundred feet high. Local climbers informally refer to the rock as granite, which is a close relative to quartz monzonite. The earliest recorded climbing activity dates from the 1930s, when Harold Goodro put up some routes before shifting to predominantly climbing on the quartzite of Big Cottonwood Canyon and elsewhere. Many of the major routes in Little Cottonwood were established in the early 1960s by the Alpenbock Club, some in conjunction with well-known visitors including Fred Beckey, Layton Kor, and Royal Robbins. The Lowes – George Lowe, Greg Lowe, and Jeff Lowe – came to prominence through the rest of the 1960s and early 1970s. More recent climbers have pushed the standards to the highest levels, establishing several 5.13 routes. Access can be a problem. On the north side, the "Church Buttress" above the LDS Church vault, and the Black Peeler Buttress, are on private land and not legally accessible, as are parts of the south side. This still leaves some 20-odd named buttresses and gullies available for climbing, mostly on the north side. Approaches involve parking alongside the road and hiking a short distance up through scrub oak, sometimes scrambling through fields of enormous boulders. Face climbing is the predominant technique, typically using bolts and cracks for protection, but there are many notable crack climbs as well. Most routes are 2-4 pitches in length, with walkoffs involving still more scrub oak. The highest-quality face routes are to be found on The Fin, an almost-featureless expanse high above the canyon. Its route The Dorsal Fin (5.10d) is a classic of the Wasatch; first ascended by George Lowe and Mark McQuarrie in 1965, the bolts of this four-pitch were all drilled on the lead. The canyon also includes Gate Buttress, whose 80+ routes include the aptly named Schoolroom (5.6), a five-pitch