Information about this hike provided in partnership with
Mountaineers Books.
Copyright © Dan A. Nelson/The Mountaineers Books Granite Mountain
One look at the parking lot midday on any summer weekend, and the obvious will jump out and bite you: the Granite Mountain Trail is the most heavily traveled summit path in the Snoqualmie Pass corridor. Of course, there is a good reason for that: it's spectacular. But it's also steep. Mind numbingly, thigh-burning steep. You'll climb a heel-blistering 3800 feet in 4.3 miles to an old fire lookout at the 5600-foot summit, with awesome views in all directions. Pack plenty of water, as there is no good source along the trail.
The trail starts out climbing. You'll hike away from the trailhead parking area through a lush old forest and gain a solid 800 feet in the first mile. At 1 mile the trail forks. Turn right off this relatively flat trail for some serious climbing (to Pratt Lake goes left). In the next 0.5 mile the switchbacks are easy, if a bit steeper. But as you near 2 miles the switchbacks get tighter, the trail gets steeper, and the breathing gets more difficult. At 4000 feet elevation you'll get a breather as the trail angles across a tricky avalanche chute. Caution: Early in the year the upper mountain is covered in snow and ice, and the upper slopes are VERY avalanche prone. If you're here any time before mid-June (most years), pause before crossing the chute and look up the gully. If there is still snow above you, be extremely careful--slides can happen at any time. Once across, the trail starts climbing again. If you time your trek just right, you'll find huckleberries alongside the trail all the way to the ridge top. You'll also break out of the trees and start exploring wide, steeply slanted meadows. Bulbous beargrass fills these meadows in early summer, and when those white blooms disappear, lupine and paintbrush color the slopes red and blue. At 5200 feet you'll crest the summit ridge, getting a brief reprieve from the ruthless climbing as you cross a meadow. You still have another 0.5 mile or so to cover along the ridge crest and then up the summit crown, but the hardest work is behind you. Get to the top and enjoy the 360-degree views from the lookout--on some weekends, volunteers open it up to visitors.
Driving Directions:
From Seattle drive east on I-90 to exit 47 (Asahel Curtis/Denny Creek). Turn north over the freeway, turn left at the T, and drive to the nearby Pratt Lake-Granite Mountain parking area. Recent Trip Reports
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Day hike
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Snow on trail
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Despite the clouds and rainy forecast today was a great day for a climb up Granite Mountain. The tra...
Despite the clouds and rainy forecast today was a great day for a climb up Granite Mountain. The trail toward the summit route is in fine shape, no blowdowns or other obstructions. There are a pair of avalanche gullies that require short snow crossings, but are hardly of note. Further up however the snow starts to take up the trail and the beaten path abrptly ends at one last island of bear grass and trees. This is the point that you have to start heading up the snow covered mountainside, you're going to wish you brought boots and gaiters at the least. Heading off in a westerly and up sort of direction the fire lookout eventually came into view between the clouds. The path to the summit is still on decent snow, though there were a couple of deep postholing incidents. Towards the summit we were greeted with a light snowfall, which was unexpected, but welcome, like Christmas in May! Lots of great glissading opportunities on the way down, so much so by the time we got back on the trail my rear end felt like it'd been dragged across cold, wet sandpaper. In summary, be prepared for lots of snow travel, some of it fairly steep.
Granite Mountain
— May 04, 2013
— Mathias
Day hike
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I went to the trail head today but found that the Granite Mountain trail is closed until further not...
I went to the trail head today but found that the Granite Mountain trail is closed until further notice. The Pratt Lake trail is open though.
Day hike
Issues:
Snow on trail | Avalanche danger
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Road to trailhead totally clear now, for that matter, no snow until well after then spilt in the tra...
Road to trailhead totally clear now, for that matter, no snow until well after then spilt in the trail and into the first avy chute. Hit trail about 8:45. When I did encounter snow it was already slushy for the warm sun! Start as early as you can for best snow!
Went straight up avy chute, low danger today. I was using snow shoes........not a great idea. Steep slippery snow. A couple of guys ahead of me were making steps so I took off the floats and stepped in behind them. That was the ticket! The wind got a little blustery, maybe 15-20 mph on the ridge above the timber line, but was do-able..... Start off with light gear! It was warm!! but have gear for higher up if it gets windy.......sweat and wind make for chilly! Wind was very light at the lookout though, for a beautiful view and lunch!! Light crowds up high.....maybe 10 people summited, but only one at the top when I got there. That would be Jim, just met him at the top. I think He's famous now! The best part.........GLISSADE! What took almost 4hrs up, was about one hour coming down!!! Glissaded at least 3,000ft!!
Granite Mountain
— Mar 17, 2013
— sumitseekr
Day hike
Issues:
Water on trail | Snow on trail | Avalanche danger
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Started off at the trail head with nice gentle conditions. Light snow no wind.
Trail was snow with...
Started off at the trail head with nice gentle conditions. Light snow no wind.
Trail was snow with some icy spots, but easy going. When we hit the first Avy chute we snowshoe'd up. Some post holing with one of our bigger guys. But still very nice going. Light fluffy snow on the trail and lightly snowing. We did the Winter route straight up, staying to the left of the first Avalanche chute. Steep route!! When we broke trough the tree's on to the open ridge, the wind was blowing ice and snow completely horizontal up ahead. We geared up with full goggles and baklava's and cinched our gear down after we traded out the snowshoes for micro spikes. The ridge was not deep snow on the nose, wind made sure of that. We trudged on in the rocky nose of the ridge and the winds got worse. I would take a conservative guess at 35 mph. (seemed like more!) We ended up turning back a mere .23 miles from the top, which we couldn't see. Visibility was 300 yards max. sometimes less. Did some cool glissading down and was back in the tree line and into better conditions fast! All in all, if your into hardcore steep winter climbs , it your thing! We loved it, but we kinda twisted that way! Day hike
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Snow on trail
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Perfect day for a snow climb up Granite Mountain--sunny, warm, almost no wind. And low avalanche dan...
Perfect day for a snow climb up Granite Mountain--sunny, warm, almost no wind. And low avalanche danger! Ice and snow from the parking lot upward. Some bare patches on the trail for first half mile or so, but beyond that, all snow all the time. Sometimes a few inches, sometimes deeper than my hips, all sorts of texture and consistency. Very frustrating at times. I tried crampons early on when I was slipping at the avalanche chute, then just post-holed every step for ten minutes. In frustration I switched to snow shows but mine are not right for steep climbs, so I could not toe-in properly and slid back a lot.
Went vertical for a few hundred yards on left edge of the avalanche chute in tracks made on prior days (snow compressed somewhat meant less post-holing), then headed left and uphill through the remains of the trees. Above treeline, crossed over the ridge a bit in search of better snow (Aided largely by the very helpful Paul, who passed me on trail and led the rest of the way after I was ready to call it quits because of all the back-sliding. Glad he was there and I finally topped out.) All in all, took me 5 hours up and about 2 down. Glorious day up there--some sparse clouds moved in to spoil some pictures but mostly very clear. Some real steep sections, but the snow was not solid enough for an ice axe to arrest, making sliding always a belly to the mountain affair on descent (and when the snow balled in my crampons, I slid a lot). Compared to my two climbs from Paradise to Muir (higher altitude and greater elevation gain but a more defined trail), this was considerably tougher and took longer. Funny, two adjacent signs at the trailhead indicate that it's about 1,800 (I forget the exact altitude) and 2,000 ft above sea level. I adjusted my altimeter watch to split the difference at about 1,880, and it registered about 5,780 at the summit--about 150 ft higher than the actual elevation. Ah well. |
 Granite Mountain - near the top of the trail to the old fire lookout. Photo by Karen.
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