Silver Fork is a great trip for a first of the year trip. Not too steep, not too far from the valley, and good places to refuel after.
My dad had some surgery 2 weeks ago and got the ok from the Dr. to go do a light trip. We parked at the lower lot at Solitude and the wind was howling. Once we got on the trail the wind died down for us, but you could hear it ripping along on the ridge line above us.
We stopped about 400 yards of the point mentioned in guidebooks as the spot to head back down. This took us about 50 minutes moving time to get to.
After we headed down the hill to Silver Fork Lodge and had an awesome lunch. They have some great food, and I enjoyed their reuben as we sat by the crackling fire watching the snow blow. Man I love Utah.
Hope to get out and do lots of trips on the shoes this year.
For some reasons I had lots of snow building up on the rear portion of my MSR Denali Evo Ascents. Anyone ever dealt with this? Maybe some wax would prevent it in the future?
Also, we saw a sign speaking of a man who was killed in an avalanche in the area and to keep an eye out for his backpack/gear.. It said January, but not the year. Anyone know when/where this took place?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVJKRmqWQrQ