solbright

As has become tradition, we did our Solbright (i.e. Solitude + Brighton) hike this past Sunday, after enough snow had fallen to make this our last hike of the calendar year.  Brighton - which had already opened for the season - said it was 11 F in the morning, so we waited a bit for it to warm up; when we got up there, it was much warmer than we expected and we were both over-dressed.

 Signage

Like last year, we started counter-clockwise around Silver Lake, then peeled off onto the Twin Lakes trail.  Although the Silver Lake parking lot was full (as was the Brighton resort lot - packed!), there really weren't many people out there: we passed two groups of four as we climbed up to the dam, and then saw another two at the dam, and then no one else. 

Summit ahead

It had been a few days since the last snowfall so the path was well-trodden up to the dam.  When we continued up past the dam, into Solitude proper, foot traffic had been less heavy but the footing was still okay.  Even as we slogged up the access road on the steep last bit to the top of the Summit chair, it wasn't icy and we could walk in some snow-cat tracks.

That's me, holding hands with H's shadow

As always, it is pretty up at the top of Solitude, with views into Honeycomb Canyon and across Big Cottonwood Canyon to the now-closed Guardsman Pass road.  Any hillsides that were south- or west-facing were pretty much clear of natural snow but the shady spots were holding onto theirs.  We backtracked a little ways and then took the access road down to Lake Solitude.  There were a fair number of squirrel and deer tracks but other than one squirrel who scolded us, this hike was critter-free. 

H with Honeycomb Canyon behind him

We finished by completing the loop around Silver Lake and then (of course) toasted the end of hiking season with parking lot beers.  As we did, some Brighton skiers were showing up after their time on the hill.  We talked with them and everyone seemed pretty stoked to get the ski season started.  That's the best out here: you can finish one season's activity and then head right into the next with no downtime.

No snow across the way

Hike stats:  5:26 miles; 1:49 moving time / 2.9 m.p.h; 2:14 overall time / 2.3 m.p.h.; 1,400' climbing