[christensent]

Late start leaving the lot around 11:30am. Went a bit further up the trail past the granite turn-off (past the two bigger stream crossings) then immediately after that found a skin track up hill that went up west granite. Turned off a little below that and went up granite. Nice snow higher up, dusted spring-like snow in the trees, and of course the boot track out which skis fine to the lot (other than the probably 2-dozen times you have to take your skis off round-trip for little streams). Really great area, never gone up granite by quite that route. I found it much more enjoyable and scenic than other routes.

[PaleoCook]

Looks beautiful. I'm curious of your route...could you roughly map it out on hillmap or provide a gps trail? Granite is full of those rather intense looking avy shoots. http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgIDIx-DbCgw

[christensent]

Here is the approximate path we took: http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgICo_YGuCgw For comparison, here is the more direct route, I'd consider this to be the "standard" winter route that avoids all serious avalanche terrain if you get the route right: http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgICozPmkCgw For the record, the summer trail is a very bad idea!

[PaleoCook]

Thanks for the tracks. I'll probably avoid Granite this season, being my first winter snowshoeing and all (almost always solo as well), but it looks much more approachable from the west .

[Just_Some_Hiker]

[mbravenboer]

PaleoCook, just be extremely careful, large parts of that mountain are a dead trap. After the dead of Doug Walker last year there was a good discussion here on the routes and how certain area occasionally do get avalanches. https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8019387 Just as a general guideline, I like what somebody once wrote here on nwhikers (forgot who) : "Granite Mountain is not a snowshoe". The idea was to explain that if you can't hike/crampon it, the snow conditions are likely to make it unsafe.

[Bugs]

Granite is particularly dangerous for a few reasons. 1. It gets scoured often by avalanches leaving very little to hold the snow in place. 2. Once an avalanche starts up there, it can quickly trigger a very wide swath of the upper bowl. 3. Then it all gets funneled into the gully below creating a huge river. 4. All this ends with a 100 foot drop. 5. At the bottom of the drop, a huge mass of snow piles up to tens of feet deep. Your chances of surviving an avalanche on that south slope are in the range of 'really low' to 'why would you even ask'.

[PaleoCook]

Yeah -- that sounds killer. And not in a good way =/. I do want to hike Granite in the winter, but not alone, and not this season unless I'm going with folks that really know what they're doing. I mean, heck, I've never used a crampon before (just microspikes/snowshoes). I'm hopeful that I'll pick up some skills with the Mountaineers and just getting out there. So much to learn! It's exciting that there is so much to explore. Ending up in an avy that will carry me over a 100ft drop and bury me doesn't sound like a good time. Yikes!

[Bugs]

[Bugs]

Northwest Avalanche Center https://www.nwac.us/ Mobile Apps http://www.nwac.us/education/resources/mobile-apps/ Also see the App Store. Donate if you can. This is a really great resource!

[christensent]

[gb]

For myself, experience has taught me it isn't the Avalanche Hazard Forecast level that is critical in decision making, but the nature of the hazard and the consequences - how much snow could slide combined with the configuration and size of slopes. And digging pits is overrated, particularly when there is abundant knowledge of snowpack layers at a particular point in time. Pits are always (generally) educational but are not necessarily valuable in making route finding choices. Sometimes, yes, but often not. Pits are important for professionals to demonstrate that they have made the effort to remain abreast of the situation. For myself, the key is the telemetry combined with field observations of instability (more important than observations of stability) not just of myself but of others. For instance ten days ago I skied in the Canadian Rockies for a week. Prior to doing this I watched the Avalanche.ca regional forecasts for three weeks. The snowpack was demonstrably and unpredictably unstable and was not going to change. I made sure that all members of the party looked at the same information. When I arrived at the area I met the guide that had led the previous week's skiers. Although he clearly could not offer advice, he certainly could answer some questions as to his observations, and was helpful. I knew that my own experience and that of my party in the Canadian Rockies and biases that we had from skiing in ranges with different snowpacks were actually a factor in increasing risk, not visa versa. Our group skied the entire week and I felt that on no occasion did anyone ski or do anything that put themselves or others at risk. We managed our expectations. It would have been fun to have dug a pit and to seen the bad structure, but I pretty much knew what it would look like. And in no way would a pit have made one iota's difference in decision making. There was plenty of evidence, including visual, that dangerous full depth avalanches could be triggered from perhaps 400 yards away. Managing hazard in this situation had more to do with setting safety margins and having a rough idea of what those margins might be. Although I seldom would consider carrying an inclinometer when skiing, I did on this trip. We discussed routes thoroughly and I, for my part, made sure that routes taken were reasonable given the concept of a safety margin. Slopes chosen were generally not large, were of appropriate angles, and were supported below. The skiing was terrific. The points: 1) Knowledge of snowpack beforehand is critical 2) Telemetry observations and field observations by others are critical 3) Understand the nature of potential instability (or visa versa) 4) Recognize consequences 5) Manage risk and expectations

[Bugs]

@Christensent Good to hear! Thank you for the details. I thought I saw the whole region go red on Saturday but since I was town bound I was not paying close enough attention. After hauling a few bodies off that mountain I am a little paranoid about trip reports that could make that area seem safe. It can be done safely at times but too many casual readers will not understand what makes the difference.

[DIYSteve]

[iron]