Granite Mountain, Granite Mountain - Winter — Friday, Feb. 13, 2009

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Started out around 10 a.m. and hit the trail upward. Left our crampons at base, because trail and weather seemed like they would not be neccesary. About 2/3 the way up we fell in behind some other hikers and as a group followed the footprints up the peak. Turns out we drifted right of the trail and found ourselves on the right side of a steep bowl. The other groups went left, and we decided to stick with our route because what we thought was the peak was in site. We had GPS and realized we were off trail, but continued. Well...this became the most difficult hike I have ever done. The snow gradually became harder, the route steeper, and we more fatigued. Just kicking in for toe holds began to take quite a while, and having no crampons, our climb was very slow. After struggling to reach the peak, we ended up more or less "stuck" about 500 yards from the top. We couldn't go left or right, and we couldn't safely head downhill over the rocky ground we had just covered. If we could have turned around, we probably would have. We had to gut it out and ended up hacking ice steps up on our hands and knees for several hundred feet with our ice axes. Slow, tedious, HARD work...I was so tired I wanted to throw up. Closer to the peak, the snow got a little softer, and we could continue in a more upright postion! Great at the top. Very scary hike that got out of control for us. Very hard hike with the ice and steep incline. Coming down was a challenge as well, but much quicker. What took us 2.5 hours to accent took us 10 minutes axe sliding down a slope!! 7 hours total for the hike, 5 up, 2 down. "stay on the trail, bring crampons!"