Summited Granite Mt yesterday and had a blast.

This was actually my 2nd attempt, my first attempt was 2 weeks earlier: When I had arrived at the trailhead there were about a dozen people all gathering, and I noticed none of them had an an ice axe, and all were wearing microspikes, so I decided to leave my ice axe and crampons in the car. I passed all of them on the way up, none made it as far as I did, but eventually I had to turn around because I kept sliding on steeper parts with only micropsikes and had no ice axe to self arrest. I probably should have turned around sooner. I also shouldn't have been a sheep and tried matching other people's gear.

So yesterday I came back with crampons, mountaineering boots, an ice axe and even a whippet. At the 2 mile mark where the opening to the first avalanche chute is, I noticed a group of 4 going straight up it in a vertical line, not really sticking to the normal trail. But I figure If they could do it, I could too (with the gear I brought this time). I was able to catch up, but eventually 2 of them turned around due to the steepness. The 2 others that stayed struggled a little with their snowshoes/microspikes, so I was trying to carve a path for them w/ my crampons. Everyone had an ice axe though and we all used them at times.

We stopped for a few minutes at the watchtower at the top, and then hurried down taking the same path we took up; down the avalanche chute. We ended up just glissading down the whole thing, and it was a total blast. Really one of the best glissades I've ever done, better than Adams, St Helens or Rainier. Texture of snow and angle was just perfect. Was down in like 5 min.