Granite Mountain - 1.27.2011
rodman's GPS route of our trip to the NW summit and true summit of Granite Mtn... 8.85 miles roundtrip, gaining 4208 feet of elevation.
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Packing up at the Pratt Lake Trailhead... take Exit 47 off of I-90 and find the trailhead (1880') on the north side of the freeway.
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Lots of places to go from the Pratt Lake trailhead... we will go left at the Granite/Pratt 'Y' and continue towards Talapus, Ollalie and Pratt Lakes.
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After 3.75 miles of hiking, bypass the junction (3700') to Talapus Lake and continue towards Pratt Lake.
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A quarter mile past the Talapus/Pratt junction we put on snowshoes and headed cross-country towards Red-2 (Point 5160+).
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Silver Peak (center) and Abiel Peak (right) from just below Red-2.
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A closeup of Little Tahoma and the Willis Wall on Mt. Rainier... from just below Red-2.
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Working our way to the top of Red-2... and looking over to the lookout and summit of Granite Mtn.
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Beyond Red-2 now and heading for the NW summit of Granite.
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Looking down on Ollalie Lake... Bandera Mtn (left) and Pratt Mtn in the foreground... then McClellan Butte and Mt. Defiance... The Olympics on the distant horizon.
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Nearing the NW summit of Granite Mtn (a.k.a. Tusk O'Granite).
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Near the NW summit of Granite Mtn... looking down on Red-2... and out to Mt. Rainier.
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Summit party waiting for ragman to arrive.
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From the NW summit of Granite Mtn (5566')... left to right... rodman, Middle E, Sadie's Driver, Gus (dog), Kaleetan Peak, BarbE and iraman.
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Looking down on Crystal Lake from Granite's NW summit... with Low Mtn in the foreground.
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Looking across Low Mtn to Mt. Hinman (all snow) on the left... then Snoqualmie Mtn, Chimney Rock, Lemah Mtn, Mt. Thomson, Chikamin Peak and Four Brothers.
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Gus watches BarbE and Sadie's Driver getting ready to do some serious damage to a snow creature.
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Group shot as we get ready to leave Tusk O'Granite and head for Granite's true summit in the distance.
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Ascending towards Granite's summit... steeper than it looks here... if you happen to be an atheist, reconsider!
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rodman and BarbE traversing underneath the corniced NW ridge of Granite Mtn.
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We can see the lookout now... just to the right of the summit... Opus' tracks from a couple days ago on the right.
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Looking east from the Granite Mtn summit (5629').
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A closeup of Kaleetan Peak, Chair Peak and Bryant Peak.
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Looking past the summit cornice to Keechelus Lake in the distance.
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The Granite Mtn lookout.
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Looking beyond the summit cornice to Kaleetan Peak, Chair Peak and Bryant Peak.
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Leaving the Granite Mtn summit and more or less heading due south to find the trail.
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BarbE, rodman and Sadie's Driver streaking downhill and looking for refreshments.
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Looking back up to the lookout as we head for the barn.
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One last photo stop before finding the trail at ~2600 feet... leaving a 1.25 mile hike back to the trailhead... these folks tried to kill me on this hike.
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