Alpine Lakes Wilderness > Granite Mountain (Snoqualmie) > Climber's LogGranite Mountain (Snoqualmie) Climber's Log
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| Justin Pucci | Granite Mountain  Date Climbed: Aug 17, 2008 | |
| This mountain is just great! My wife and I had been planning on heading up Granite Mountain when the huckleberries were at their peak and, while they weren't everywhere on our hike, we did find some decent patches. We passed a hiker on the way up who had said that he saw a bear eating berries on the upper slopes. By the time we got there, we could not see the bear. Oh well, more berries for me! The alpine meadows above the treeline are absolutely beautiful and give such an airy feel to the hike. The last half of a mile to the summit lookout is quite a great bit of scenery too. When we got to the lookout, there were two rangers who had been tracking the bear since earlier in the day. The views were beautiful all around and it was great to stop for some hard-earned lunch before heading back down. This was definitely a worthwhile outing! | |
| Posted Sep 29, 2008 7:53 pm | ||
| bmwboarder7 | Good Night Hike Date Climbed: Aug 16, 2008 | |
| Left at 1:30am and speed hiked to catch up to my buddies. We made it to the top by 4am and had a little bit of time before the sunrise, which was absolutely beautiful. Even hiked by just the moonlight for the meadow section. Saw two bears in different areas while coming down in the morning. A great way to climb this one, as we also realized we escaped the majority of the mosquitos and heat. There also was somebody sleeping in the tower at top... which we discovered at about 4am. Oops. Overall very amazing hike though. | |
| Posted Aug 17, 2008 2:42 pm | ||
| cthomson | trail run Date Climbed: Jul 18, 2008 | |
| This was my trail run, and qute a run it was. Spent quite a bit of time walking due to the elevation change, but still managed to make it to the top in about an hour. Overcast the whole way until the ridge, where there was nothing but blue skies! Will be back! | |
| Posted Jul 21, 2008 12:57 am | ||
| wildstar | Main Trail Date Climbed: Jul 9, 2008 | |
| Great views and a fun hike. Climbed with Jon and Marcus. | |
| Posted Jul 11, 2008 5:26 pm | ||
| Dan Winter | Good Granite! Date Climbed: Apr 27, 2008 | |
| A fun trip with the Seattle Mountaineers.I have climbed this mountain about 5 times by several routes in all seasons.By far the funnest summit was with my 8 month old daughter on 7/18/09 | |
| Posted May 15, 2008 9:43 am | ||
| lukic | Good training hike Date Climbed: May 7, 2008 | |
| I really wish that they left the lookout unlocked. It would have been nice to eat lunch out of the wind. | |
| Posted May 7, 2008 8:45 pm | ||
| BKW | Nice Climb Date Climbed: Oct 27, 2007 | |
| Did this one while my wife was getting her nails done in North Bend. I had to run a good portion of it. Nice climb with plenty of snow on top. Good views. | |
| Posted Apr 4, 2008 6:59 pm | ||
| Andy Dewey | Fun Winter Climb Date Climbed: Jan 25, 2008 | |
| Combined with Tusk O Granite and Pratt Mtn. Great trip, nice views and an awesome day. | |
| Posted Mar 21, 2008 1:40 pm | ||
| ecobiker | Cloudy Mist Date Climbed: Jul 18, 2007 | |
| Although the climb went well, the entire peak was whited out all day. No views from the top and most of the flowers had already passed their prime. Cold wet trip in July. What a bummer. But we still had a good time and were glad to be outside. | ||
| Posted Mar 3, 2008 8:37 pm | ||
| gimpilator | Fall Colors Date Climbed: Oct 13, 2007 | |
| Nice to be back. Gareth and I made it up in 2:06. Lots of nice colors this time of year. | |
| Posted Oct 13, 2007 7:28 pm | ||
| Doehle | good fun Date Climbed: Jun 30, 2007 | |
| Nice trip up, had a twisted ankle on the way down. Still a good day | |
| Posted Sep 20, 2007 1:09 pm | ||
| Casey Bates | No views... Date Climbed: Sep 18, 2007 | |
| ...but no people either and plenty of berries. | |
| Posted Sep 18, 2007 9:58 pm | ||
| EastKing | Above the Clouds Date Climbed: Sep 15, 2007 | |
| Trip report and photos will be forthcoming very soon. I will say that the trip up this mountain was awesome!!! | |
| Posted Sep 17, 2007 1:46 am | ||
| TheBootfitter | Beautiful Labor Day! Date Climbed: Sep 3, 2007 | |
| What an incredible day! A lot of blue sky with clouds scattered around the horizon. Peek-a-boo views of Rainier and Adams and good views of Glacier Peak. Went with two friends. Carried a 30-lb pack for "training" and enjoyed a glass of wine on top. Made it up in just over 2:30. Fun hike! | |
| Posted Sep 7, 2007 3:31 pm | ||
| Redwic | Two Summits, One Morning!!! Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2007 | |
| Awesome views and a highly recommended hike. I was surprised that the Lookout was actually open. I summitted Granite Mountain after I had summitted nearby Pratt Mountain earlier that same morning. | |
| Posted Aug 19, 2007 5:39 pm | ||
| Hotfeet | A fantastic day! Date Climbed: Jul 28, 2007 | |
| What an awesome day! Beautiful weather and fantastic views near and far! A must do Washington climb! | |
| Posted Jul 28, 2007 9:12 pm | ||
| cp0915 | trail from I-90 Date Climbed: Jul 21, 2007 | |
| The final hurrah of a great week of hiking and climbing in the Cascades. 5 peaks, over 17,000 feet of gain - good times, despite the near-constant rain all week. | |
| Posted Jul 22, 2007 5:20 am | ||
| binersrcool | Illegal camping !!! weeeee Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2007 | |
| we started hiking at about 11pm on tuesday 7/3, taking our sweet time. The moon and stars were so bright that we turned our headlamps off once we busted on out of treeline! the sunrise was amazing, right over glacier peak. just a beautiful clear day! Super busy on the way back down. must have seen 5 pregnant people hiking up.... crazy | |
| Posted Jul 5, 2007 7:03 pm | ||
| jordansahls | Nice weather! Date Climbed: May 24, 2004 | |
| Fun climb, lots of step kicking. | |
| Posted Jan 25, 2007 4:19 am | ||
| nodbod | Cold on Granite Date Climbed: Feb 18, 2006 | |
| Granite Mountain 2/18/06 So, set out today to climb the main avalanche gully on Granite. The day started off cold in the parking lot at 815AM. I wore a coat for the first time in my life during a hike. It was 22F at the trail head (1916ft.). We set out at a pretty quick tempo to warm up, passing a soloist on the trail, and hit the gully in 45 min (3450ft.). Crampons and ice axe at the ready, we shot up straight in the gully. There was a party of 3 with a dog about 600 ft. above us switch backing in trees. We wanted the alpine experience and more of a direct route, so we stayed in the gully. The snow was rather solid, and each step created a squeaking of the crampons and axe. It was Heaven. Breathe in, step, step, breathe out, step, step. We passed the party in about 20 minutes, and hit the timberline at 4730 ft. There was a gentle wind from the east, blowing at around 15-20mph. We set our backs to it, and started side stepping our way up. To our surprise, the wind was slowly pushing us west, toward the ridgeline. Once at the ridgeline, the wind was constantly gusting at 45-50mph. We were being knocked over constantly. The wind was blowing a wisp of air bound snow around the ridgeline. Wahoo! It was exhilarating. However, it was a bit out of our comfort zone. We were only biting in a couple millimeters, if that. The slope was a solid 35-40 degrees, which seems like 60 degrees when you're on it. We didn't want to slip and have to arrest, so each step was kicked in, and we had to trust our feet. The temp here was around 6F. Add the wind chill factor, and it got down to roughly -23F. -23F in Washington? What's going on? My buddy decided to get off this ridge and traverse into the bowl, perhaps finding some relief from the gusts. He led the way, straight into the wind. I just put my head down and followed his tracks. Each time I looked up, there was a sharp sting to my face. So no more of that!!! At this point, both of our water tubes had completely frozen so no more aqua for us. After the long traverse, the wind calmed back down to a friendly 15mph breeze. We switched back, got out some good ole' pecans and chocolate, and found refuge behind a tree and rock (5750'). This relative refuge, was tempting to spend a few minutes at, but we knew that we would cool quickly, and that we needed to press on soon. My hands and face were beginning to numb, as were his hands, so we did a quick dash to the summit, only a couple hundred vertical feet away. It was a lovely day, there was relatively mild winds at the summit, save these huge swirls of snow being spun around by the winds a bit off the summit. Rainier, Adams, and Glacier Peak were visible. We snapped a couple of photos, ate some cookies, had a few gulps of unfrozen water, and got ready for the glissade. I would be lying to say that I wasn't kind of shaky starting to glissade. The avalanche chute ran for about 2500 vertical feet, and the slope was pretty steep. We took the glissading in small bits. Glisade, arrest, glissade, arrest. It wasn't bad until the 5th or 6th glissade, where my legs started to spasm out. The spasms were probably due to lack of water, so I decided to jog the rest of the way down. My buddy's hand was completely numb, and we were short on water, so we wanted to get to the tree line as fast as possible. Once in the tree line, we started to have shooting pains in the fingers. At least they were alive still. Being in the trees was was like being on a different mountain. It was a balmy 25F, the wind was non-existent, and there were people. The rest of the way was in the trees. A fantastic day! I learned that this was the coldest day on record in the Seattle area in the last 10 years! | |
| Posted Jan 16, 2007 5:20 pm | ||
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