Granite Mountain — Friday, Jun. 13, 2003

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Got to the trailhead about 9am with about 20 cars already in the lot. Weather was marginal with many clouds, but no rain expected. The trail was in good shape and dry all the way up to about 4000' where there was some snow still on the ridge and on the east side. Snow also covered most of the top, although there were some rocks that were snow free to sit down and eat lunch. Rather than following the trail over the the east side into the snow, most people were working there way right up the ridge line through the bolders. Travling on the snow was easier, but there was some post holing near the rocks and the drop to the east is pretty steep. Someone was in the lookout, but the door was closed. Great views come with this 3800' vertical hike/scramble. This a great alternative to Mt Si, which seemed to get a little boring hiking through the trees. What's nice about this hike is you get out of the trees about halfway up giving views everytime we turned around. We took our time, 3 hours up and 2 hours down. Many people were doing it much faster.