June 17, 2006, Granite Mtn, Idaho

Since I know a few TAYers here in Idaho, I thought I would post a trip report to get some information flowing.

I drove out past Brundage Mountain with intentions of skiing Granite Mountain, dependent on road passage. The road was open up to within a 100 yards of the Granite Mountain/Twin Lakes Trailhead. The snow was suprisingly firm at 9:30 AM and would remain in good shape all day. I decided to boot up after several tricky stream crossings. Getting to Twin Lakes was pretty easy and the northeast aspects of Granite Mountain looked great. From my estimation, it looked like at least 1000 VF from Twin Lakes. That's pretty good for Idaho in Mid-June! After reaching the ridgeline, I decided to ski from the summit of 8479 instead of Granite Mountain proper. There were many options from the top and about 4+ chutes that still looked good from mid mountain to the lake. I picked a nice chute that provided 1200 vf from the summit. I thought it was a continuous line, but I ended up having to rappel about 100 feet near the bottom. This is a great area with easy access. I'll definetely be back out here next week. Off to Council Mountain tomorrow.