[Just_Some_Hiker]

Although I've been up Granite Mountain many times, I've never been up West Granite. So, I decided today would finally be the day. There seems to be several route options, but I liked the one outlined by Iron in this thread. It's very direct and safe from avy danger. I hiked the Pratt Lake Trail, which was compacted snow, until about mile 2.3 and then I started heading NE directly up the ridge. I put on snowshoes as soon as I left the trail. It was a little steep at first but eventually eased back and was generally low-angle for most of the hike. I was breaking trail from then on, so it was a little slow-going. Otherwise it was a straight-forward hike all the way up the ridge. The forest along the ridge wasn't as dense as I was expecting and it could definitely be skied if the snow conditions are right. Today the snow below treeline was mostly a mess of re-frozen tree-bomb debris. It looked like a few people were up there yesterday, but today I had the mountain all to myself. In fact I didn't see a single person all day until I was almost back to the trailhead. 8.6 miles RT with 3,769 ft. of elevation gain.

After wrapping up West Granite I felt like doing something else. My immediate thought was Mailbox, so I started heading that way after getting a quick lunch. When I drove by the trailhead, it looked like crazy-town, so I just kept on driving. I remembered Bootpathguy suggesting South Bessemer, so I decided to go check it out. The road was dry for the first 1.5 miles or so. Around 2 miles the snow became continuous. At 3 miles I put on snowshoes. Fortunately someone had been up the day before so there was a decent snowshoe track heading up the road. Around 4.5 miles I turned off the main road and started heading up an old Jeep trail. There wasn't as much snowshoe traffic heading this way so the track wasn't quite as well beat-in. At almost exactly 5 miles I noticed that I was 10 minutes past my turn around time, so that was all she wrote. Fortunately my stopping point had a good view of Russian Butte, so it wasn't all for nothing. When I got back to the car I looked at my GPS track and saw that I had gotten painfully close to the summit. If the snow hangs in there for another week or two I may make another attempt at this one...but with skis. 10 miles RT with 2,346 ft. of elevation gain.

Totals for the day were 18.6 miles with 6,115 ft. of elevation gain.

[John Morrow]

Uh, been meaning to ask, where are your skis these days?

[Just_Some_Hiker]

[Nancyann]

This is what i really enjoy about NWHikers; opening up Trip Reports and finding a wonderful array of gorgeous photos to drool over, helping to brighten my day while recovering from a nasty bout of the flu. Thanks for sharing!

[Mikey]

Geez Just Some Hiker. You do not let much grass grow between your feet! Sat 3-10-18 you do Camp Muir and Sun 3-11 you do West Granite and South Bessemer. Nice going. Great photos! Thanks!

[Just_Some_Hiker]