I decided to go out to Low Mountain today via Granite Mountain Trail for a few reasons:
- I did some gazing from the car yesterday and the south face of Granite Mountain was clear of cornices and incredibly wind scoured.
- The avalanche forecast was low with no items of concern.
- I did my avalanche companion rescue course refresher yesterday at Snoqualmie Pass (inbounds) and the snow was incredibly robust (and a pain to dig...).
- Reports from the area on NWAC suggested that my anecdotal observations were in line with the conditions elsewhere in the zone.
- The temps were forecasted to be cold throughout the day, making for ideal conditions to putz around by Granite.
It was a long and intense day, but also loads of fun too ☺️. Strava claims I did 9.3 miles and 5.6k' -- and I used most of my quiver of Winter gear today. I posted a GPS track on my Peakbagger ascent entry.
Disclaimer: I'm not posting snow conditions on WTA today (apart from info about the chutes), since they will be changing very soon with the incoming storm forecasted for tonight/tomorrow. Please check my NWAC observation if you'd like more details.
How It Went
I got an earlier start (around 7:30) from the trailhead.
The road and parking lot area was plowed since it's now being treated as a sno-park. It was pretty much full by the time I got there; I was the next to last car that parked at the trailhead -- multiple folks were parking near the off-ramp.
It was pretty cool in the morning and the ground was pretty icy. I successfully got up to the Granite Mountain junction in a little under an hour thanks to some creative shortcuts through the snow cutting switchbacks; I wasn't keen on following the trail since it was basically a sheet of ice due to all of the traffic (ski, board, boot). It was actually a lot faster and safer to cut through the trees without traction.
The first avalanche chute (I-90 chute) had some snow in it, but it was very low coverage (the lowest I've ever seen), so I wasn't worried about crossing it. The second chute had some snow, but less than the first chute. The third and fourth chutes had a lot of bare rock. The fifth and last chute had some snow, but it was minimal. It was definitely the lowest coverage I've ever seen Granite Mountain in the past 3 years I've been climbing it.
I had put my crampons on after the second chute for stability, but I could have gotten by with microspikes in the morning until I got past the chutes.
At the open clearing after the fifth chute I went uphill zig zagging with my ice axe and crampons. It was difficult getting purchase with my crampons and ice axe. To top it off, I had a minor malfunction with the crampons (user error), so I needed to stop and adjust them partway uphill. There weren't any visible issues of concern (snow loaded trees, cornices, etc) and there was a lot of visible rock, so I felt comfortable heading uphill over a steep section, taking my time weaving around the trees--despite the fact that I was heading up a hillside that was over 35°.
Once I got a view of Granite's ridge, I spotted some sizable cornices along the N/NE/E aspects of the ridge. I guessed there were likely more around Denny Lake on those aspects of the ridge, so I planned on tentatively going down the E ridge towards the saddle due E of Denny Lake. Sure enough, there were cornices on the same aspects, so I continued down the E ridge, sticking a bit more to the W side since my visibility of the hazards was limited. Fortunately there weren't any cornices on N/S aspects along the ridge otherwise I would have bailed.
I avoided open slopes because of concerns that I had about them maybe being in avy paths (start zones weren't 100% obvious). I didn't spot any particular issues today along the open paths, but I didn't look super hard so I was being conservative.
Once I got down to the lake, I stopped, ate lunch, and gazed at the avalanche debris around the W side of the lake. I had considered going up the S and W ridge towards Granite on the way out, but it didn't seem any better than the way I came and it likely involved exposing myself to weak cornices by Granite summit in the afternoon, so I planned on heading back the way I came.
On the way up I went towards the saddle due NNE of Denny Lake, then oriented myself NE and headed uphill. The hillside was fairly well protected and I didn't see any cause for concern today heading uphill, but all of the trees were missing limbs along the trunk on the uphill sides.
After some bobbing and weaving between the trees and a few hundred feet, I finally got to the false summit. The view of the west Snoqualmie Pass peaks was so great there today.
I followed the ridge spine north with my snowshoes, but it was too narrow (<6") and the runout was poor on each side, so I swapped out my snowshoes for crampons and gingerly walked the ridge. Once I got past this section I had to negotiate a few more knobs that were like false summits. I'm guessing when more consolidated snow is present one can likely bypass the whole lot (including the ridge) by dropping down the E face by the false summit.
After a whole lot of suspense (and a large degree of annoyance because I thought I was closer than I really was 😂), I finally got to the summit. The view there was really fantastic today: I could see all the way to the Snoqualmie Pass summits, Stuart, Thomson, Chikamin, Hibox, Big Snow, Kaleetan, Preacher, Revolution, Defiance, Bandera, McClellan Butte, the Granites, Tinkham, Abiel, Tahoma, and many more mountains (Pahto was off in the clouds today). It was crazy seeing some of the D3 avalanche debris that came off of Chair Peak too over the past month. It'd run all the way down the SW aspect to the E edge of Upper Melakwa Lake.
Heading back the way I came was kinda difficult because the snow had softened up, but I made do using the crampons when descending and the snowshoes when ascending. By the time I got back to the S face of the ridge, it was late in the afternoon (15:00) and the snow was soft enough that I could "tele-snowshoe" down it (a technique I learned last Spring heading up and down the Chelan Sawtooths). It's really fun doing controlled slides on the snowshoes like skis, breaking with my poles.
The way out past 4.5k' or so sucked though... lots of annoying postholing to contend with. By the time it got dark the snow had refrozen and was a sheet of ice again. I got back to the car around 18:00.
Gear Used
- Climbing helmet
- Crampons
- Ice axe
- Microspikes
- Snowshoes
- Trekking poles
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