[TR] Granite Mountain Dawn Patrol - SW Ridge 2/14

[trumpetsailor]

Trip: Granite Mountain Dawn Patrol - SW Ridge

 

Date: 2/14/2007

 

Trip Report:

Will T. and I (Charlie H.) scurried out of town for a quick jaunt up Granite before class/work. We left the empty parking lot just before 5 and topped out about ten minutes after official sunrise. Thin clouds at about 5400 feet prevented us from seeing sunrise proper, but views to the South were quite nice. Rainier popped out in full on the descent. We made the parking lot, still empty except our car, a little before ten.

 

Conditions: The trail's surprisingly melted out/pleasantly icy until a bit above the trail junction. Will and his plastic boots booted all the way to the summit. I fixed crampons to my less-stiff leather boots approximately where we left the trees. Beyond a few drifts at the summit, we rarely encountered more than about two inches of new on top of the crust. We encountered minimal to nonexistent signs of instability in the snowpack, but that's likely already changed for the worse. The lack of snow at the bottom of the trees is kind of a bummer.

 

Gear Notes:

Axe and crampons. We were happy to have left our snowshoes in the car.

 

Approach Notes:

Ain't nobody on I-5 at 3 am. Also, Rhodie's doesn't start serving BBQ sandwiches until 10:30 am.

Edited February 16, 2007 by trumpetsailor

[zoroastr]

Did it look anything like this? ...taken a couple weeks ago when the weather wasn't quite so sucky. After topping out, we bailed off the north side and picked up the two Tuscohatchies, Pratt Lake, etc. for a nice loop...

 

[trumpetsailor]

It looked a lot like that, except with the view pretty much replaced with a cloud. The trees may have less snow cover and the summit cornice was differently shaped, but the rime ice on the lookout was about the same. If another bluebird day comes along, it'll certainly be quite similar.

 

A little lower down, we were treated to much of the view in your photo, with most of the summits decapitated by the clouds. I was pretty surprised when the whole of Rainier decided to appear.