Granite Mountain - Winter, Granite Mountain — Sunday, Mar. 6, 2011

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

A friend and me were planning to hike Granite mountain in the snow today. We got to the trailhead a little later than we had hoped around 10:30, but initially made good progress. We began to have problems with our hiking poles when we turned onto the snow route. I lost a snowbasket, and my partner's froze up entirely. Also, without snowshoes, we began to sink in up to our hips. I once even went in up to my neck! Eventually, my partner ran out of gas and we had to turn around. Still a great hike though, in a beautiful setting. Wish I would have brought the camera. I assessed the avalanche danger in the chute by doing some testing and found fairly stable conditions, but that's bound to change with more snow on the way this week.