March 31, 2006, Granite Mtn.
3/31/06
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2454
2
Wanted to get a trip in, but Ed and I only had the morning free. We headed up to Granite, which we've admired many times driving up the pass to hit other objectives. I knew the season for this route would soon be coming to an end, what with the low elevation start, southern aspect, and the warm weather and sun we've been getting.
It took us about an hour to hike through the woods to the point where the trail meets the open snowfield. We started skinning at around 3600ft, but the snow was pretty wet and slippery, and a bit of a hassle for skinning. Skin 10 feet up, slide down three, ad nauseam. We switched to booting up for a while, and soon gained the ridge, where the bare rocks make hiking up the top a no brainer. Encountered some ptarmigans on the ridge. They were pretty docile, and stayed put while I set my pack down to pull out my camera.
We had expected clouds and light snow, but it was warm, and sunny with a few clouds. The snow firmed up as we went up, with the last few hundred feet feeling almost powdery, and more compact, which made travelling up pretty easy.
Made it to the summit about noon, where we ran into a couple of hikers at the lookout tower. They were pretty envious of our snowboards, and waited while we got ready to head down so they could take a look. Started down the west slope, and quickly crossed over the rocky ridge back to the south slope. After a couple of dozen turns, the snow started to get mushy again. At about 4600 ft, Ed kicked off a point release wet slide.
This seemed to release on a knoll, on about a 38-40 degree slope. I was well above him, and could see that he had managed to ski off of the side. I waited a bit for things to settle, but it just kept running! I slowly poked my way down, setting off a few mini slides, and we sat and discussed what had happened. The snow was flushing down the drainiage for several minutes, and really never came to a stop while we were up there. It must have run several hundred feet, but didn't run very deep. About 4 inches of heavy, wet snow slid on top of a slightly more firm base. There was not really a very strong layering in top of the snowpack, just slightly less firm wet snow on top of slightly more firm wet snow. I guess it was a layer of recent snow from the past week that was sliding. We slowly made our way down the main drainage, continuing to kick off small release even on lower angle ( 30 degree or less) pitches.
The snow lasted until about 3000ft, at which point we thrashed downhill until we picked up the trail again. 5 hours car to car.
Overall, a great day, good snow and awesome weather, with a bit of spicyness to keep us on our toes.
Gratituitous wildlife shot:
Ed
More pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82762520@N00/sets/72057594095590713/
It took us about an hour to hike through the woods to the point where the trail meets the open snowfield. We started skinning at around 3600ft, but the snow was pretty wet and slippery, and a bit of a hassle for skinning. Skin 10 feet up, slide down three, ad nauseam. We switched to booting up for a while, and soon gained the ridge, where the bare rocks make hiking up the top a no brainer. Encountered some ptarmigans on the ridge. They were pretty docile, and stayed put while I set my pack down to pull out my camera.
We had expected clouds and light snow, but it was warm, and sunny with a few clouds. The snow firmed up as we went up, with the last few hundred feet feeling almost powdery, and more compact, which made travelling up pretty easy.
Made it to the summit about noon, where we ran into a couple of hikers at the lookout tower. They were pretty envious of our snowboards, and waited while we got ready to head down so they could take a look. Started down the west slope, and quickly crossed over the rocky ridge back to the south slope. After a couple of dozen turns, the snow started to get mushy again. At about 4600 ft, Ed kicked off a point release wet slide.
This seemed to release on a knoll, on about a 38-40 degree slope. I was well above him, and could see that he had managed to ski off of the side. I waited a bit for things to settle, but it just kept running! I slowly poked my way down, setting off a few mini slides, and we sat and discussed what had happened. The snow was flushing down the drainiage for several minutes, and really never came to a stop while we were up there. It must have run several hundred feet, but didn't run very deep. About 4 inches of heavy, wet snow slid on top of a slightly more firm base. There was not really a very strong layering in top of the snowpack, just slightly less firm wet snow on top of slightly more firm wet snow. I guess it was a layer of recent snow from the past week that was sliding. We slowly made our way down the main drainage, continuing to kick off small release even on lower angle ( 30 degree or less) pitches.
The snow lasted until about 3000ft, at which point we thrashed downhill until we picked up the trail again. 5 hours car to car.
Overall, a great day, good snow and awesome weather, with a bit of spicyness to keep us on our toes.
Gratituitous wildlife shot:
Ed
More pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82762520@N00/sets/72057594095590713/
Nice pics. That was my first time riding Granite. The approach was pretty easy, on wide trail. From up on top there appeared to be a lot of good looking faces high on the surrounding mountains, particularly this year. The snow was good on top, but got pretty heavy down low where it slid. After the main slid, we had several small wet slides break as we worked carefully to safer terrain.
Nice ptarmigan!
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