Alpental to Granite via Kaleetan - 2/23/2008
Trip: Alpental to Granite via Kaleetan -
Date: 2/23/2008
Trip Report:Today Monika and I skied Kaleetan Peak and Granite Mountain. We left one car at the Granite Mt. trail head and drove up to Alpental. We left the upper lot at 10am and toured up to the col between Bryant and Chair Peak. Skied down to Upper Melakwa Lake. Put the skins back on and toured up the drainage below Kaleetan before having to boot up the gully to the south face of Kaleetan. From there we were able to tour up most of the way before taking the skis off to make it to the summit.
We skied the south face of Kaleetan down to My Lake and then down across Pratt River to about 3200ft. We put the skins back on and toured over a ridge to the south at about 3750ft until we crossed Tuscohatchie creek at the same elevation. We followed the creek up to Tuscohatchie Lake. We crossed the lake and made our way up to a saddle between Cad and Denny Lakes. From there we followed the ridge up the summit of Granite Mt. We skied the West face before traversing over to the lower section on the south side. We got to the trail head at 4:40pm.
Overall the snow quality was firm corn snow except the lower south side of Granite where it was just sloppy. Conditions were very solid all day. The elevation gain was around 6700ft. Our descent elevation was about 8100ft. I haven’t figured out the distance.
Below Great Scott Basin on our way up
Monika making her way up the gully below Kaleetan
Looking down at the ski line from the summit of Kaleetan
Monika skiing down from the summit of Kaleetan
Kaleetan with Tuscohatchie Lake below on our way up Granite
Look Out Tower on Granite with some nice guy we met
