I hiked granite via the winter route. There are a few trees down over the trail on the way up.
I first hit patches of snow just before the avalanche gully. However, once I left the summer trail and went into the woods for the winter route, there was barely any snow until just before I cleared the tree line. The snow was hard packed and I only post holed a few times at first.
Once I hit the ridge, there were deeper pockets of wind blown snow between the rocks with lots of post holing. so i headed to the West side of the ridge and the snow was harder packed making it easier to hike up. Unfortunately, there isn't enough snow on granite to fully bury the rocks, so be careful about post holing or falling into snow holes next to rocks.
On the way down, I started out on the west side of the winter route ridge. The snow was perfect for fast skiing on your feet.
When I got lower, the snow was less deep so I hiked directly east to the avalanche gully. Snow conditions were perfect in the avalanche gully: low risk of avalanche and the perfect level of softness to slide and run down quickly. But, just before reaching the trail, the snow got too soft and I started post holing every step. FYI be very cautious choosing this route and only do so if you know the conditions are safe. This avalanche gully has killed people and is extremely dangerous in the winter.
I hiked with trail spikes and poles. I did not need crampons, ice axe, or snow shoes. But conditions will likely change soon so this beta might not be useful for long.
And sorry for the bad route photos. It was blasting wind and sideways snow conditions and I didn't want to keep my hands out of my gloves for long.
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