May 1, 2008, Northwest Granite Mtn. 5566'

Folks call this "West Granite" often but I like how the "NW" rolls off the tongue.  Betty and I left Roslyn around 7:00 AM and met up with Mr. Doober at the Granite Mtn. TH.   Betty and Mr. Doober€¦ yeah you guessed it: Alpental Patrol surnames!  I did wear my Alpental Bark hat to fit in a bit!   Anyway, clouds held in to a bit past noon, which was good for us as our goal was to get to the top and then head down a NW aspect from 5500ft. to 4000ft.  As Trumpetsailor mentioned, not quite as good as yesterday must have been.  But here is where I've been informed to say it was May blower powder!  OK, stretching it a bit, but actually the first 800 vertical feet of descent was quite nice with more than foot of newer light snow and no reaching the crust.  Things got more heavy from there down to 4000 feet.  A quick 500 feet of climb was all it took to get out.   Had things held in we would have climbed back onward to the top for a second run on another aspect, but in crossing a west aspect things had got pretty mashed potatoey.  From there it was a loooong fun downward traverse all the way to the Granite Mtn. Lookout Trail junction with the Pratt Lake Trail.  And we even got to ski the trail down to past the switchback at the base of the big slidepath (second switchback 2200 ft.) and a few hundred yards beyond.  In skiing down from the summer trail junction, the level hard packed tread was about the only place that was still holding snow!  A short walk later it was back at the TH.  Expect to be walking very soon up 'till about 3000 ft. 
Of snowpack interest, we still observed the very thick layer (2+ft.) of very saturated snow beneath the varying amounts of new (depending on which aspect we were facing).  I think it may be from the rain that iluka mentioned and that TJ and I found a couple Fridays ago in Source Lake Basin.  It could pose a fairly big cycle of wet slides with the next extended warm-up, we believe.  It will be a while before it corns up.  Hitting it early after a good deep freeze may be possible but afternoon warm temperatures will bring pretty deep and potentially hazardous mush.  It was sunny and felt like high 50's back at the cars.
Well, the day was filled with laughs, catching up on stories, sweet views of the craggy Melawka region, good deep snow, and great company.  It was a fun long tour through terrain we haven't explored much and made many a mental note of for next winter.  I said I had to ski "May Powder" this year and got my chance!
Here's a picture breaking out into the open, and another of Betty and Betty (dog) dropping in.