Previous skis into the greater Granite Mtn area?

I guess I just have a thing for nearby, low-elevation, and/or semi-flat skiing (maybe more touring than touring). Lately I have been doing a lot of hiking in the Granite mountain/Talapus-Ollalie-Pratt Lake area. Has anyone ever been to Crystal Lake, the name on the map for the first lake below Granite Mountain on the north side? Below that is Upper Tuscohotchie (approx. spelling) Lake. The descent looks pretty good from near the top of Granite. Then there's the mellow trail to Talapus-Pratt Lakes. Circle routes are easy to imagine. Since we are sure to have a fantastic winter I wanted to get some comments on real trips to this area.

A couple of years ago I've hiked around Granite Mtn in the summer -- camping at Upper Tuschohatchie lake. It was very nice. On snow I think a descent along the NE ridge from the Granite summit to the saddle with Low Mtn and from there to Denny Lake and down Denny creek would have the least avalanche exposure. I think traversing from Lower Tushchohatchie to Hemlock Pass (Melakwa Lake) and descending Denny creek would require very stable snow conditions as numerous avalanche chutes are crossed and the section of the Denny Creek valley along Snowshoe and Keekwulee falls is steep, narrow and cliffy.<br><br>In less favorable weather and snow conditions, peak 5566 NW of Granite is a nice objective.

A few winters ago John Mauro and I skied from Alpental over the summit of Granite to the Granite Mtn trailhead. We went through Pineapple Pass, made our way into the long valley connecting the saddle between Granite/Granite West and Lower Tuscohatchie Lake and climbed up the NE ridge of Granite. We were concerned about snow conditions and there is some unobvious route finding above Crystal Lake (at least where we were looking from), so we avoided the lake. I'll leave the rest of the route finding details to you to work out. This is a nice tour with some decent turns, but mostly touring. It took us 10-10.5 hrs from road to road.