Granite Mountain - 1/17/09

With snow packs stabilized after the flooding rain and a classic inversion leaving the mountains warm and sunny, Lucas and I went out for a quick excursion - either Granite peak or Kendall peak via Kendall lakes. En route Granite peak looked a little bare so we continued to Kendall, which was socked in. Fed up with Seattle gloom and not knowing when (or if) the fog would burn off we back tracked to Granite. We were greeted by a biting wind while patchy bare spots from the rains made us boot for the first 1200 feet of elevation or so. We then skinned up mostly following the summer trail -easily discernible with the low snowpack - into the clearing. Once in the clearing, we stayed on the a steep rib, which accompanied with the snow conditions caused much ski slippage and frustration. We finally decided to boot it about 900 feet from the summit, which was another source of frustration - post holing, no traction on mixed vegetation and tallus. The biting wind returned, spitting ice pellets at us and trying to use my skis as a parasail to take me back down the mountain. After my little tirade from frustration we made better time and made it to the summit. We were greeted with beautiful views, including the always scenic I90 with its patented roar of automobiles, on a picture perfect day. Lucas on the right with Rainier backlit in the background. The I90 summits just below: Kaleetan being the rocky "tower" towards the left, chair peak just to the right and Snoqualmie just to the right of that, with glacier peak poking its head out between Snoqualmie and Chair.

We stowed the skins and skied. The top was a nice mix of slightly hard crust with beautiful spring like corn. The slopes were awesome with the sable snow pack. Below, the snow was nice, but heavy making rock dodging a bit difficult for me. This then led to survival skiing in the trees followed by a 800 ft hike out to the car. An awesome day filled with cursing and frustration. .... but I have nobody to blame but myself for the route selection and the rear I took. We even stopped at the Iss. Brewhouse and made it home before dark. .. Now onto the lecture that I have been procrastinating. Elevgain/lost - 4050 ft.