[SlowWalker]

Not sure the history of the unofficial name of this peak, but it seems most folks on this board like to call it W. Granite. It is easier to type. With all the ski areas now closed on Fridays, Jon and I chose W. Granite as a good start to the hiking season with a little skiing as a side benefit. Jon is an experienced ski mountaineer who uses tele gear. I am a hiker and alpine skier who has done a few small ski tours in the last two or three years. I still don't have proper touring gear. Last year I used my Alpine Trekkers and a pair of borrowed skins, but this year I have new skis that are too big for borrowed skins, so my Trekkers could do me no good. Thus I committed to carrying my skis on my back all the way to the top, wearing ski boots the whole time, and snowshoes above 3,500'.

That's a lot of stuff strapped to that small pack

jt working the dirt trail in ski boots

Me, loaded up and heading out

jt on the Pratt Lake trail

Stream crossing on the Pratt Lake trail

We hiked the Pratt Lake trail, past the junction to Granite Mtn proper, crossed two streams and up about 3 switchbacks. Then we left trail and headed uphill through open trees along a small shoulder of the mountain.

Leaving the trail and heading up to W. Granite Mtn

Just keep on heading uphill

New April snow on the trees

Jon was ahead of me, and by 3,800' we left the shade of the big trees and ascended through more open terrain. I noted that his tracks changed from boots to skis. I took two steps past where he put on his skis and sank wast deep in the slush! OK, time for the snowshoes. I strapped the MSR Denali snowshoes to my ski boots and slowly, very slowly worked my way up the mountain.

W Granite Mtn ski 011

Still a long way to go to reach the top

First peek at Granite Mtn and the lookout tower

Any place that was open to the sun was deep slush and the slope was steep enough that I found it to be tough going -- two steps forward and one step back much of the time. Jon effortlessly glided up the mountain on his tele skis with skins, barely sinking in an inch or two. I sought out any possible shade to find slightly firmer footing. Eventually, Jon skied back down to check on my progress, and found me at about 5,000'. He let me know that the false summit (often called "red 2" because of the markings on the USGS map) was just ahead. Once on this final ridge line before the real summit, things got easier as the snow was more compacted and I didn't sink so much. After what seemed like entirely too long, I joined Jon on the main summit (5,566'), enthusiastically removed the snowshoes, had a nice break and enjoyed the clear sky and big views.

Granite Mtn from W Granite Mtn

W Granite Mtn and the slope we skied

jt on a cornice

From the summit of W Granite Mtn

Lake Tuscohatchie, 4.24.09

Kaleetan and Chair peaks

Ridge leading to final ascent of W. Granite

Olallie Lake, 4.24.09

Kaleetan from W Granite Mtn

We clicked into our ski bindings and skied down the SE facing bowl. Great fun, great snow -- for a few minutes. In just a few minutes, we had dropped 1,500' and regained the trees. We picked our way down the drainage as far as we could and took the skis off at 3,500'. I checked the map here and figured we only had about 700' to drop before we would hit the Pratt Lake trail again, and after a little brush bashing we quickly descended through the widely spaced trees. Jon even put on his skis for part of this. We hit the trail within a few hundred yards of where we had left it and enjoyed the last 1.5 miles on dirt trail. Quite a nice day to be in the mountains, but I don't want to carry my skis while wearing snowshoes and climbing up steep, slushy slopes again! That was a whole lot of work for just a little bit of skiing -- even if it was very good skiing. It's time to get some proper touring skis and skins. Our approximate route:

W. Granite route 4.22.09

[GeoTom]

[SlowWalker]

It was tough. It is kind of a strange sensation to be suffering through something like that, yet not really minding the suffering. We had no deadline, so there was no pressure to get there by a certain time. And I figured coming down was going to be easy and fun enough to forget about the waist deep slush. Plus, it's good training for trips yet to come. A note about conditions and gear. The snow was getting cooked and we could see evidence of loose wet slides around, but they all appeared to be several days old or more. We each had a shovel, beacon and probe. We chose our line down with avies in mind, avoiding rollovers and other areas that looked suspect. Just before we switched back from skis to foot travel, we crossed a creek and as I came across the bank, a small slab kicked loose from under my skis. The slab was about 10' x 15' and maybe 6" deep. It slid about 10' down toward the creek before stopping. Nothing too bad, but we stayed alert and in sight of each other until we got back into the forest.