[Pribbs]

Mountaineers trip to Pratt Mountain via the Granite Mountain/Pratt Lake TH. Unfortunately I decided to screw with my GPS watch and pressed the wrong button and accidentally stopped my trip recorded early. But we were already back to the lake on our return, so I was able to trace the whole route and elevation changes. Just know that it was about 9.4 miles and 3400 feet of gain RT. Here are the tracks: http://www.movescount.com/moves/move200464950 We left the snow-free TH at 7am. We stayed straight on Pratt Lake Trail at the Granite Mountain junction. At about 2 miles up the trail at about 3000 feet is where we started to get into the snow, just a dusting at first. Then about another 1/2 mile after that is where there was constant snow on the trail, but not enough yet for snowshoes. We were able to make it all the way into the Olallie Lake cutoff at about 3750 feet before you will probably want snowshoes from then on as you descend into Olallie Lake basin. So we hung a left at that junction toward Olallie Lake. The trail was totally obscured but I was following the trail shown on my GPS map or there is also occasional flagging on the trees. We crossed the outlet creek and then veered right and followed the creek and flagging on the trees up to Olallie Lake. And wow what a gem it was!

Now, as shown in the GPS tracks I provided, we climbed steeply west up the slopes of Pratt Mountain. This is all off-trail now, so just aim for the eastern nose of Pratt's ridgeline. At about 4200 feet we crossed what, when not under several feet of snow, would be the trail to Island and Rainbow Lakes. We continued up until we gained the ridge of Pratt Mountain. We followed the ridge up, bushwhacking through tree branches at times. We soon came to the crux of the route, a group of boulders that can either be scrambled over or avoided by staying right. We opted for the fun way and went right over them, a bit tricky with snowshoes on but not super challenging my any means. After that it was straightforward ridge run to the top. Once the trail broke into the open, the views were breathtaking, with Chair and Kaleetan, Rainier, and even the Olympics!

4.6 miles from the TH we reached the summit, where we were met by camp robber jays. What a great day to soak in the sun and the views!

On the way back down when we reached the boulders, we opted to take off our snowshoes and descend down and around them on the left (north) side and put on our shoes once we got down that steep pitch. When we returned to the lake there were a good number of people around, most of the people likely coming from the Talapus Lake TH. Many people didn't have snowshoes. While the snow was fairly consolidated, they still postholed a good amount and probably only got by without snowshoes because they were using the packed down trails from us snowshoers from earlier in the day. Fantastic trip on a beautiful day.