Our group planned to do mailbox peak - dirtybox peak - granite lakes traverse, but didn't get a chance to do it before winter. We were inspired by a recent trip report at nwhikers.net for a mailbox peak to dirtybox peak traverse and this seemed to be practical for a winter hiking.
Today was a good day. We first hiked up mailbox peak from the old trail. After a short rest, we descended to its north ridge for about 200ft, then scrambled along the steep slope toward dirtybox peak. Finally we climbed up to the east side ridge of dirtybox peak and walked for a very short distance to reach the peak. Fortunately, the recent snowshoe track was still obvious and we basically followed this track to the peak. Thanks to the previous hikers who broke the trail.
It was sunny in the morning, but the storm started to roll in when we reached dirtybox peak and it started to snow when we followed the same route back to mailbox peak. The wind was strong at mailbox peak, so we descended quickly from the old trail to the mailbox trailhead.
The slope from mailbox to dirtybox was very steep and especially on couple spots. Also please be aware of the avalanche danger due to the steepness of the slope. Fortunately, today we had low risk after couple sunny days.
Ice axe is highly recommended for this traverse. We carried snowshoes, but didn't use them because the snow was packed.
Unfortunately, we lost one trekking pole on mailbox peak and one pair of gloves along the mailbox old trail.
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