Granite Mountain, Granite Mountain - Winter — Monday, Jan. 24, 2005

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

It was July on Granite Mountain. It was easy to step around the few cow pies of snow on the trail before gaining the ridge that led towards the lookout. Even on the ridge the snow was spotty and only a few inches deep - the trail was bare more often that it had snow. On the steep ascent just beyond the pond and camp sites (some of which were snow free) there were some long snowy patches - the only part of the trail where post-holing was possible. I turned around at the bump just before the boulders (the pictures of the look-out and of the mountains to the north were taken from this bump). It looked like a snow-free boulder hop up to the look-out as long as one kept to the south. No bugs. No animals (someone's leftover crust from the day before had not been touched). Trail was in like-new shape (the one quibble is some run-off just past the Pratt Lake trail junction). I've been on Granite Mountain in July and seen more snow that what I saw today. One of the other 10 people on the mountain said that he had seen more snow lingering into August. There was more snow in the trailhead parking lot than on the trail. Weather was sunny - most of the ascent was shorts and T-shirt weather. I almost didn't go today because the DOT webcams at the pass showed thick fog - from Granite Mountain one could see the fog spilling down (and quickly dissiptaing) from the pass. In summary - it was like July but without any blowdowns and without the bugs and without the summertime haze.