Generic

Ain't nothing like a hike up to the windy heights of Granite Mountain to break in the New Year.

I had hiked up to Granite before a few weeks ago, but had to turn back prematurely because of horrible conditions on the ridge. It was snowing, raining, the fog created white out conditions, AND my stupid eyeglasses were so fogged up I couldn't see a thing anyways. The trail had snowed over and I was heading up the more direct ridge route, but the tracks disappeared and so did my motivation thereafter.

I decided never to leave a task unfinished. I had encountered slippery conditions last time, so I made sure to have my crampons ready if the situation arises.

The forecast called for 50% chance of rain and snow, but i'd give it a fighting chance anyway. Too many times have I heeded the 'forecast' and lost out on a great day of clear weather hiking.

Driving in I noticed a cloud of mist obscurring the top of Granite. It was partly cloudy, but the sunrise sunshine was breaking through like a huge spotlight along many of the mountains and ridges. I was hoping that the 'spotlight' would be hitting my location along the way. I pulled into the Pratt Lake Trailhead about 9:00 am. There were 7-8 cars in the lot and the ground was damp.

The snow levels had fallen since my last visit, encountering the first significant patches at around 3000'. When I reached the first snow gulley I was able to appraise the ridge and it looked like it was shifting between gusts of misty fog and periodic sunbreaks.

By the time I got to the third snow gulley the sun broke through and shined it's rays down. I impulsively quickened my pace to suit my improved mood. I hit the first bowl shaped tarn and was glad to see that the closely lying mist that haunted me last time was nowhere to be seen and the area was clear enough to get a good look at the route up.

I ascended the ridge to the left of the tarn and had to get good footing as the ridge was crunchy with ice. It was an exposed area, with lots of wind gusts kicking up the loose snow. I spotted a couple of slow moving hikers ahead and figured there was no need for crampons at this point.

I rode the ridge up and dropped to the tree area to the right to take the longer route. I noticed earlier a hiker had gained the more direct ridge to the left, but since this was my first time in this area and the fire watch tower wasn't visible I didn't want to kill off any extra energy trying the ridge.

I rather enjoyed the longer way, going through the snowpacks and trudging past ice encrusted trees. It gave me that brief 'winter-wonderland' feeling.

A steep incline began and I had to kick steps up and use some existing ones that the hikers in front of me established. The wind began to progressively get worse as I neared the summit. I stopped short to get a good look at a lake to the East.

I got to the summit and spotted a metal rod sticking with some red spray painted on it's side. I assume it marked potential avalanche levels or some such thing. For some odd reason the two hikers that were ahead of me were nowhere to be found. I was not more than a few minutes behind them so there's really no way they could have departed this quickly.

As I moved closer into the summit clearing the Fire Watch Tower came into view like a ghostly apparition (look at the pics!). Winds were just whipping back and forth, and I knew that I wasn't going to be hanging out very long with conditions like these. I noticed that there were no tracks leading to the tower so I assumed those hikers disappeared off the face of the Earth.

I stepped gingerly around a big tree in between me and my designated goal. The summit area consisted of a bunch of large rocks with snowpack over the tops of them. I had to poke around a few spots as the snow wasn't sufficiently holding up and I didn't want to fall through to my armpits in a hole between rocks.

I got around and to the tower. Aside from that tree there really wasn't any place to get out of the wind. I skipped up the ladder to the tower balcony and noticed it was locked up tight.

Another party that was behind me came up and hung out near the tree, rather than trying to get to the tower. From the walkway I could see another hiker making his way up the direct route. It didn't seem such a bad route from here, though you'd be exposed to the winds a good portion of the way up.

I went over to say hi to the other hikers and at this time the sun just came out and gave us some magnificient rays to enjoy. The sun bathed the ridges and mountains around us. The mist lifted over the terrain below us and I got a good view of the route I came up and farther down a ways.

Had it not been so cold and windy I would have stayed a while longer. But I attached my crampons so I could make a quick retreat. As I descended down to the treed area directly below, the tower came into view with blue skies behind. One minute it was clear, the next, the fog rolled in. It's amazing how violatile it can be, and this was in generally tolerable weather. I am sure this area can get real tempermental.

The route back was pretty straightforward. There was an older hiker that kept crisscrossing the gully area mumbling about there 'not being enough snow'. I had passed him on the way up and he was following the trail back up where he came.

Anyhow, it finally did start to snow lightly, which was fine by me considering I got a bit of sunshine in the deal. I noticed my mouth piece on my water bladder had frozen over and I had to tuck it into my shirt to thaw it out.

It was a nice day to do a little snow hiking. I could have used snowshoes during the last couple of stretches, but It was beat out pretty well by hikers beforehand. I would recommend bringing crampons, especially if you want to go the direct ridge route. Definitely a fun, worthy way to spend New Years Day.

Up: 3:22 hrs

Down : 2:15 hrs

Elev: 1881' - 5594'

Dist: 8 miles