Granite Mountain — Tuesday, Jun. 25, 2002

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Trail is snow-free - except for a solid, boot-blasted jaunt across the last avalanche chute crossing - until you're on the ridge (above 4600 ft). There you face King Kong-sized snow patches. The snow up here is soft and deep - every of my attempts to step onto the snow resulted in post-holing all the way to terra firma, sinking beyond my knees even along the edges of the patch. The trail switchbacks in and out of the snow patch along its eastern edge before finally deciding to cross the patch at its center where it appeared to be over 4 feet deep. My advice - try passing below the snowpatch. The ranger report dated 23 June stated that you can make it to the summit if you kept to the rocks - the views I had of the summit confirmed that. Except for snooze-able lairs of beargrass there were only drippings of wildflowers: paintbrush, bunchberry, lupine, and others. Few insects bothered me while I was on the trail - but while bush-whacking CCW around the snowpatch (the wrong direction, it turns out) the insects were extreme.