[User-Name]

Great weather today for an aerobic romp over familiar ground. No drama, no freight train winds, no boobytraps on the nicely filled-in summit ridge...basically a perfect day on Granite. Icing on the cake was the fact that despite a late 9:00 am start and about ten cars in the lot, we saw no other tracks on the ridge or on top! ...weird! After tagging the summit, we wanted more. Dropping onto the W. Ridge, we strolled to a point just before the saddle between Granite and Tusk, descended quickly into the basin, traversed it, then shoed up to the saddle just south of the Tusk, then dropped a fast thousand feet in the direction of Ollalie Lake to pick up the Pratt Lake Trail and the jog back to the car. Thanks for recommending this one, Erick; I never expected it to be so gorgeous up there today! ...some snaps:

Out of the forest, the trail breaking begins. There's enough snow to pick your own path to the top.

After recent rains, it was nice to see the blue again!

I figured the ridge would be punchy and treacherous. Happily, I couldn't have been more wrong!

Quick snack at the shack.

We weren't entirely alone on the upper mountain.

Summit shot, just before the next leg of the trek...

Erick boots down the W. Ridge...

...while I pause to snap the view of Upper Tuscohatchie and Kaleetan.

Our tracks down the slope. Although pretty, the snow on this side of the mountain was not nice. I had to transition from snowshoes to crampons when things got icy. Of course, Ejay sprinted the whole slope without changing...I'm gonna slip some Kryptonite in his pack.

Easy overland booting up to the saddle.

Less than stellar snow conditions on the descent to the exit trail. Plenty of white, but a thin layer of fresh dump, sitting on top of bullet-proof ice, had me back into the 'pons once again--a minor nuisance on such a spectacular day in the hills. Thanks, Erick!

[Roly Poly]

Beautiful! So you had the summit to yourselves? Did everyone else go to Ollalie lake?

[User-Name]