Granite Mountain, Granite Mountain - Winter, West Granite Mountain & Olallie Lake via Pratt Lake Trail — Saturday, Apr. 26, 2025

Ours was the fourth car at the Granite/Pratt trailhead when we started around 7am. Fleetwood Mac was naturally the day's soundtrack. Headed west towards Olallie Lake on bare trail. Creek crossings no problem early in the day. One section of boardwalk has some rotted planks but those can be easily stepped over. Rounded the corner near "Lookout" "Point" and proceeded north. Snow began around 3800' and was mostly continuous from there with a few muddy patches. A solid boot track made navigation easy with no traction required. There was a moderately tricky creek crossing around 4000' that required descending a short but vertical snowbank directly into the shallow water.

We were looking for sets of footprints heading east from the trail but finding no obvious candidates we turned right by a tree with an old insulator attached. Seems reasonable that the party line to the Granite lookout would have gone this way instead of across the south avy slopes. After some mostly open forest travel we emerged onto a snow slope that provided a straightforward elevator to the NW ridge of West Granite ("Tusk O'Granite"). We stayed towards the shady climber's-right side and found snow conditions generally good for kicking steps with no traction. The axe stayed on the pack, as most of the snow would have been arrestable with a ham sandwich, but poles were helpful.

Emerging onto the ridge we connected with a set of week-or-two-old solo snowshoe tracks and then the tracks of a much larger group. It took us until this point to realize that "Tusk O'Granite" is a play on "Tuscohatchie". Some waist-deep wallowing was had on the lee side when we tried to cut a corner not in the trees, but that was soon over and we emerged onto the summit at about 10:30. It was a little hazy in the distance but the views of the surrounding peaks were fantastic.

After a brief break we descended into the saddle between the Tusk and Granite proper. Some really big trees there! Some of the largest I've seen above 5000' in the area. Snow was getting softer but staying in the forest helped. We soon exhausted that option and were on the narrow, somewhat exposed NW ridge of Granite. We stayed climber's right below the crest for cornice reasons and to try to keep to snow instead of boulders. In a few spots the snow was very thin on top of the rocks and we punched through deeply into the awkward spaces between talus blocks. On a couple traverses I wish I'd gotten my axe out but it would have been more work to do so at that point than just kicking a couple extra times each step for purchase. Meanwhile, in some places we were able to use the pre-kicked steps of the morning ski crowd, which was great.

Reached the lookout about an hour after leaving the Tusk and found a large party with several frolicking dogs. Took a rest and then descended mashed-potato snow on the winter route to the trail at about 4350'. Trail was mixed snow and mud and boulders crossing the upper avy gully, with a couple punch-throughs and one creek crossing that took some care. Pretty much snow free below 4000' with dusty sun exposure. The avalanche damage from the past winter has been cleared! Surprised at how few people we saw overall on this excellent weather day. Full loop came in around 9 miles and 4000 total feet of gain. Then for me it was off to the Bainbridge ferry with the in-laws for a complete Seattle day.