March 15, 2014, Granite Mountain Trifecta

Headed out yesterday with the idea of climbing Granite Mountain (East Peak) with Erik, but the day turned into hitting up: Granite Mountain (East) 1x, Granite Mountain (West) 2x and the smaller peak to the South of Granite West 1x to make it a 6,890 VF day.  The conditions were variable on the way up.  Started in trail runners for the first 1/2 mile, switched to booting when we split from the trail, switched to skinning through the trees when it got too deep and then booted up from treeline to the summit as the snow became solid and skiing wasn't working.

The descent from Granite East to the bowl to the West was icy, but you could hold an edge.  We climbed up Granite West with the idea of maybe dropping off to the North, but after digging a pit we found that the top 6 inches would shear off without much force at all.  That idea was nixed and we skied skiers right on our first descent just as the snow was starting to soften.  Descents down the peak to the South and again from Granite West (skiers left) after were really fun as the snow was pure spring corn.

Used the avalanche chute to exit, which lead to some tough skiing conditions and some good old bush whacking.  All in all an awesome day with better skiing conditions than we thought we would find and more skiing than we thought we were going to do.

Link to Route:
http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgICAldeUCAw

Photos:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105664275472153507536/albums/5991567632742894209