[Opus]

Car needs an emissions test? Well there's one of those along I90 in Bellevue. This could take all day. Better take the day off. Oh and it's nice, and I'm already on I90? Guess I've gotta go climb something. Yeah. It was about 30 degrees when I left the trailhead. I caught up with the two women who departed just before me as they headed to West Granite. I continued up the Granite Mountain trail on well-packed snow. Already it was warming up. By the time I hit the wilderness boundary I was in short sleeves and my thermometer read 45 degrees! There was a well-made set of steps here and the snow was solid in the track, but mushy in the untouched areas. I put on my small Katoola crampons for better traction. Continuing up my thermometer kept going up ... all the way to near 70 degrees! I don't think that's accurate but it sure felt warm. I was sweating in just a T-shirt as I climbed.

Above freezing

Wait, what?

Winter...?

Winter, stop!

Winter? Where'd you go?

Juneuary...? This is at 4000 ft.

As I left the trees I switched from poles to my ice axe. Steps continued to be well made and the snow good until about 4500 ft. Then the winds kicked up and an icy slab layer, plus a glissade track, mostly covered the steps. Footing was decent most places but very inconsistent. Patches of thick wind slab appeared and several places of glare-ice. Some of it I could stomp through, some not. Some steps I hit powder. Really tough footing. As I approached the tower there were more patches of clear ice. My small Katoola crampons were working well but I wished I'd brought the real crampons with the longer teeth. At the summit both my altimeter and keychain thermometer agreed on 55 degrees. Frankenweather to go with the frankensnow. The only cold came from the strong wind. I quickly ate my lunch, said hi two two others who came up behind me, and began my descent to the saddle between Granite and West Granite. Quickly I could tell this wouldn't be fun. The upper slopes had a very hard wind crust that required careful footing. I made it down a hundred feet and started to get into softer snow. As I passed a small clump of trees I hit ice again and had to turn face-in to the slope. I couldn't break through it easily with my crampons and my axe wouldn't sink in very deep. I tried to climb back up closer to the ridgeline but the crust above me would just break and the powder underneath wouldn't hold a step. Can't go up. And I really didn't want to chance a glissade. The run out was good, no trees or rocks, and a nice catch basin, but with the ice I'd be going way too fast. I very slowly traversed sideways, face into the slope, planting the axe as deep as I could each time, until I made it to the ridgeline. Not fun. The snow here was better if I stayed close to the edge but still not that good. I quickly gave up on West Granite and just made my way to the basin. The snow down here was much softer but still had a very thick ice crust under a few inches of sun-warmed mush. Annoying conditions; slippery enough to cause a fall, too soft to get any kind of glissade going. I plunge stepped my way down through the trees in some old snowshoe tracks and was happy to recover the Pratt Lake trail. The rest of the way back to the car was uneventful. I can easily see someone getting in trouble up there with these snow conditions. The lower part of the climb lends a false sense of security and then turns to crap halfway up. I don't consider myself a climber, just an all-terrain hiker with snow travel experience, but this was difficult in places. I'm sure it would have been better with full crampons but under the current snow conditions be very careful up there.

Avalanche came through here

Looking back again

Long way to go

Snag

Ice

Ice fins

Snow meets ice

Ridge

PCT is back there somewhere

Granite Mountain lookout

Lookout tower

Junuary? Should have worn shorts

Through the ice

Descent to West Granite

Nasty ridge conditions.

Shadow

[Snowdog]

So glad you made it down safely! Weird conditions at the moment for sure.

[JPH]

Thanks for the report. Do you think you could you skin from/ski to the trailhead?

[Opus]

[zephyr]

[christensent]

Looks like nice conditions up there (outside the ridge traverse). Did you need snowshoes in the forest, or is it packed down well enough to go without?