March 10, 2002, Granite Mountain (I-90)

Two of us left the trailhead around 8am. Two skiers and four snowshoers were breaking trail in front of us. We could see the Summit from I-90 and conditions looked good. Three hours later above the treeline things rapidly deteriorated. The snowshoers called it a day. We continued to about 4300' on a mix of drifts and icy crust. We strapped on our boards and harvested a nice 1100' section of vertical in thigh-deep light powder. The snow was great quality and remarkable. We were careful to avoid the gullies on the descent. We ate lunch out of the wind back in the trees. Above treeline we saw evidence of some small shears, and pinwheeling, but otherwise the avalanche danger appeared moderate.

Freeride