| The rape and pillage of Granite Chief Trip Report |
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| The rape and pillage of Granite Chief   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: California, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 39.19811°N / 120.28712°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Mar 13, 2009 Activities: Hiking, Mountaineering Season: Winter | Page By: squishy Created/Edited: Mar 18, 2009 / Mar 19, 2009 Object ID: 499035 Hits: 718 Loading... Page Score: 88.56% - 17 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
In March 2009, on the morning of Friday the 13th, we met at the Wendy's between the two versions of Highway 80 in Sacramento. Biz's rickety old truck and piles of gear in the back was reminiscent of our Conness adventure. I had brought just about every piece of winter gear I had. Adam, Toxo, biz and I were set on an overnight backpacking trip in the snow but we just didn’t know where. The week before, we had all summited Signal Peak in deep snow and had tossed around the idea of an overnight trip. The destination was up in the air for the whole week, but we decided on Granite Chief at the last minute. Biz had his eyes on all three peaks along the ridge including Needle Peak and Lyon Peak. We managed to squeeze all our gear into the back of Adam’s Forester and were off. Our climb turned out to be quite different than we expected, but not lacking in adventure.
Biz with his giant pack on the hike in to our camp. |
We followed 1000pks' directions to the trailhead at the ritzy Squaw Valley Inn where an employee gave us an OK for parking (I think we were in the employee lot). We followed the snowshoe tracks heading up the northern side of the canyon toward the PCT. We were each carrying a decent sized pack; I remember thinking that the tails for my snowshoes would have been nice to have. The snow was soft and slushy and the weather was nice and hot. Biz and I both thought we were going to high towards the ridge so we dropped into the bowl just before the 1st chair lift. Yes, chair lifts; we were just outside the main ski area boundary for most of the hike in. The day was getting late and tiredness was setting in. We setup camp near Shirley Lake 7500’ and hid ourselves from the road marked by snow cat tracks. I had seen several snow mobiles go down this road during the day. I ducked several times during the evening to hide my bright yellow beacon of a jacket.
Adam following the steps up the slope. Look how slushy the snow is. |
We built a table and bench on the side of a snow bank, immediately started melting snow and setting up tents. Adam had a new Bibler Eldorado tent to test out and Biz was testing a BD winter bivy (it sucked). I built a flat spot and put down my Tyvek and my little summer solo tent. I had recently bought a barely used MSR Dragonfly stove and boy did that thing melt snow fast. Adam’s Jetboil GCS faired pretty well too. Biz taught us quite a bit about camping in the snow and it was nice to have an experienced professional along. As the sun went down we began putting on the layers; Toxo soon looked like a snow ninja and I had on three different fleece layers by the time I went to bed. We played some cards and actually got though a whole game of bullshit before Adam cheated us. He did bring a 12-year-old scotch to warm us up so we let it slide.
Adam and his wife, the snow ninja, sitting around the table eating grub. |
The next morning we had to wait for the sun to come up and Toxo to emerge from the tent, since as usual she is only powered by the sun or a whole bunch of ethanol (she is the embodiment of the green revolution). We decided to follow the snow cat tracks up the basin and assess what we could see. Squaw Peak loomed over our camp yet we were still unsure what peak it was or where Granite Chief was. We arrived at the first chair lift and Biz ran over to talk to the operators. They sounded like ski bums and gave us good info for avoiding “the man” by staying off the “groomers”. Turns out Granite Chief was over there and not “over there” so off we went up the hill to the north ridge of Granite Chief. We stayed in the trees away from the out of bounds signs until the summit of the ridge. The ridge was highly corniced and had a few steps to surmount that gave me trouble. The whole time we had lugged along crampons and ice axes in hope of solid snow on this ridge, yet there was none.
Biz getting ready for summit day under a cold but pretty sunrise. |
The summit was cold and windy; there were clouds in the sky all day but nothing threatening. In the morning I called Lew, another partner, from camp to inquire about the weather forecast (bonus of camping in a ski resort). We stayed on the summit just long enough to eat lunch; it was getting close to noon and we needed to make it back to the car by 4 pm. No one wanted to glissade with me, they said it takes more time, but I didn’t let that stop me.
Biz on the north ridge of Granite Chief. I glissaded the slope on the left on the way down. |
I crawled out beyond the cornice with my ice axe and inadvertently slipped into the glissade while considering it. Granite Peak is steep and I bet I put a deep butt line right down the middle of it; biz confirmed he could see it when looking back a mile away. They were right about the glissade though, it takes more time to prepare and put the snow shoes back on when you’re done. They quickly caught me and my glissade efforts did little to shave off time, plunge stepping was the obvious way to go. We quickly broke down camp and headed on down the cat tracks, as it switched back we plunged straight down. We followed the southern side of the valley on the way out. It was a completely different trail than the one we took going in and we ran into more snowshoe tracks at a large waterfall and snow bridge. The river was very calming and you could tell many people had hiked up there in the snow to check it out.
This is where we found tons of snowshoe prints leading back to the Squaw Valley parking. |
We popped out into civilization in what looked like condos or homes, on the opposite side of Squaw Valley from our vehicle. Biz asked someone in a wedding party near the chapel for directions and it appeared a large river divided us from our goal. We walked all the way around what Toxo called “Yuppie Disneyland”. Tourists were asking us for directions and ski rental employees were mumbling about our ice axes as they gave us confused looks. I had summited Granite Chief and I didn’t care what anyone thought anymore, I’m sure we looked out of place, like barbarians returning from rape and pillage. We made it to the car and took off down the road for the ceremonial Ikeda tasty burgers and pies. I can’t believe we spent the whole weekend at Squaw Valley and never paid a dime.
Biz asking the wedding party for Squaw Valley beta. |
I walked around this tree and took several pictures of it, at each angle it looks completely different. |
Lake Tahoe as seen during our push to the summit of Granite Peak, |
Watching the sunrise and clouds over Silver Peak from camp. |
Interesting scenery along the river near Squaw Valley. |
My 1st night out in the snow and all I have is a small solo three season tent and a piece of Tyvek. |
Biz's fresh tracks up the snow, he did a good job of pounding out a good trail for us noobs. |
Beautiful |
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