Granite Mountain, Granite Mountain - Winter — Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

With avalanche danger low near Snoqualmie Pass, still winds and clear visibility to Mounts Adams and Rainier, today was the perfect day for a climb up Granite Mountain, perhaps for the last responsible time until June for someone with my technical ability and equipment. If not for the peak's popularity, a positive report from the weather center and my familiarity with the trail from two previous hikes, I might have remained giddily rattlepated of Granite's frigid, blank majesty. From the first glimpse of the summit's snowy tonsure from the highway, Granite's reputation for winter hazard seems justified. With five vehicles already at the plowed parking area at 9:15am and boot-packed snow at the trail-head, we knew our scheme was not completely harebrained. Folie à deux is far more likely than folie à plusieurs. We strapped-on microspikes at the entrance and wore them the entire day, through dense forest, across avalanche chutes, into clearings, over ice-covered, months-ago huckleberry fields up to the ridge line where we stopped 1/2 mile from the ranger station. Of the many-membered hiking group (many in Yak-Trax) and the two avalanche-chute climbers (without any foot traction) whom we encountered, only three continued along the ridge to the lookout. At least those three were linked with ropes, but none wore crampons. The colors of the lower trail, the greens and silver of light dust on pine, were vibrant and vivid this morning, an intensity heightened by the sun's two-week hiatus. Eye protection will help with the broad expanse of white on the upper trail. While the lower trail was in great shape, except for a large fallen tree that I did not remember from last September, we cut our own steps and posted through sometimes-deep powder on the foothill. Uncertainty about the stability of the cantilevers along the upper ridge stopped us. The ridge views were reward enough for today. Risking our lives for vanity and for the minimally better views from the top would have been excessive. When we arrived at the parking area at 3:15, we noticed a few more cars, definitely not the full crowd that comes during the summer, despite the generally safe conditions today and the exquisite views of the Cascades in the snow.