[puzzlr]

I did this trip with my son Eli, and I had the camera so there's a lot of shots of him. There is snow on the trail right from the parking lot but it's packed down until the Granite turn off. From there the Pratt Lake trail was broken by two hikers ahead of us until we passed them, and even then it was just a few inches of snow above a hard-packed trail base.

Pratt Mountain Map

Stepped waterfalls in creek

When we turned off towards Olallie Lake we started breaking trail in 6-8" of new snow. But once we set our snowshoes the steps were firm so it wasn't too bad. Well that's easy for me to say because Eli hardly gave me chance to break any trail. He's as strong as an ox from his school workouts, not to mention he's a fast growing 18-year old boy.

After leaving Pratt Lake trail we had to start breaking our own trail. Slight evidence of a previous one is visible

West Granite above Olallie Lake

The hardest part was getting up to the Pratt Mountain ridge beyond Olallie Lake because it was steep enough to cause our steps to slide back. With a little perseverance we got to the ridge where the snow was harder and we made better progress. The crux of this climb is usually a rock step on the ridge that can be tricky to get around, but there is so much snow this year we walked right over it and hardly realized it was there.

Talapus lake with numerous avalanche tracks off of Bandera

Kaleetan (left), Chair (right)

A flat spot on the ridge about halfway up

Rock step, no challenge today!

The long and nearly level summit ridge was a thrill to walk on with big views in all directions and a series of innocuous cornices keeping things interesting. There was a stiff breeze so we had lunch 20 feet down on the west side with a view of Rainier poking over the ridge of Bandera Mountain.

Summit ridge

On top

Rainier

The hike back went by quickly and we rewarded ourselves with milk shakes at Scotts Dairy Freeze in North Bend.

Beautiful woods just above Olallie Lake

Six feet of snow on a small bridge over creek

I also made a 90-second flickr video but it's as much about Eli as the climb.

[Sabahsboy]

Forgive me, puzzler, I am ohhhing and ahhhing and just dumbstruck by you photos. Thanks a bunch. Wow! Esp. great shot of Rainier. OK, another look and I must add, "Magnificent!" shot!

[Type E]

There is nothing quite like an extra large peanut butter shake from Scott's Dairy Freeze. Glad you had no problems with the rock work!

[Hiker Mama]

Cool!!

[raising3hikers]

Excellent view of Rainier

[puzzlr]

Thanks -- the 10x zoom on my new toy works great, especially when it's on a tripod (ultrapod attached to ice axe in this case):

Panasonic DMC-TZ5

[wildernessed]

I have to get my kids out more. That is harder to do once there teenagers and involved in so much.

[gone]

Great pics - check out that sky! What a great day to be out!

[goats gone wild]