Fitness hike with a bit of weight up Granite today. The snow starts right at the little alpine lake area. The stream exiting from the lake has sketchy snow bridges so be prepared for a little leap. We put on microspikes and hiked straight up the ridge to the lookout. It was overcast/drizzly and not really cold and all this after two hot days yet we only had a little slush on top and no real postholing with the exception of some sketchy location between trees or too close to the boulder field. The boulder field is is almost completely exposed (but was wet today) and is flanked by an ever-shrinking snow 'field' of sorts. We chose to stay on that. The dropoff into the valley (no visible bootpack on the summer trail yet) is steep, the edge towards the boulder field is thinning and there are some trees that have only skinny snow bridges going through them so there are a few interesting' sections to get through, maybe 4 or 5?
Some sort of traction highly recommended for safe snow travel. Boulder hopping wasn't in the card today with the wet moss on the boulders.
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