Granite Mountain - Winter, Granite Mountain — Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

It was a good, but cold day out in the mountains. Gust were between 20-30 mph above the treeline. The trail is pretty straight forward, but the boot tracks were getting pretty faint. Another guy there and I were the only two to climb it so there should be more defined tracks now. It was a sunny day, so the snow softened up enough so no microspikes or snowshoes needed. I'd suggest bringing poles or an ice axe on the upper slopes, as it gets pretty steep. I wish I brought my ice axe. As for the winter ascent and all the other reports mentioning the danger of avalanches, I avoided crossing east of the open clearing/snow chute, and remained to climb on the west side of the snow chute, following existing boot tracks. This will lead you to the Southwest side of Granite Mountain. Once you get out of the trees, you can see the ridge which you can follow. With the 30 mph gusts today, I was getting blown over and had to turn back about 0.5 mile from the top, ~5000 ft elevation. As I climbed higher, the gusts were just getting worse. The other guy turned around a little lower than me. All in all, remain west of the snow chutes, follow the snow boot tracks in the trees and along the ridge, bring poles or ice axe, and prepare yourself up the steep route. Be sure to check avalanche danger: https://www.nwac.us/ Anything above moderate danger, I'd be very wary of...