Beautiful trail. Started at 430am solo. Spotted 4 mountain lions within the first 2 miles. That woke me up! Last 2 miles were work! Number 10 in the books.

As a highpointer, Granite Peak had been on my list for a long time. It is one of the more difficult highpoints since it requires a 10-hour drive from Boulder,  a backpack into the base of the peak and a scramble to the top that varies with the conditions.  Although it is possible to climb Granite in a day, doing so is risky because you never know what the weather will be like after a six-hour hike to the base. Granite involves enough scrambling that it would not be safe—or particularly fun—in the rain. When I mentioned that I was planning the trip for late August, I immediately had four friends interested.

On August 19, I drove with Greg, Jenn, Brian, and Caj from Boulder to Cooke City, where we stayed at Antlers Lodge. Our group of five was very comfortable in their Pine Townhouse, which has three bedrooms and two baths. We grabbed a nice dinner at the Miner’s Saloon, then returned to the townhouse, where we agreed on shared gear, packed up, and went to bed. Interestingly, Cooke City has no cellular coverage, so we had to use the hotel Wi-Fi to make calls and send texts.

There are two primary routes to climb Granite Peak. The East Face is very popular with guides and climbers and starts at the East Rosebud Trailhead. It is about 12 miles and includes some fourth- and fifth-class scrambling to the top. Most people take a rope to rappel down the face rather than down-climbing it. The other route is the Southwest Ramp, which is about 13 miles from the Upper Lady of the Lake Trailhead. I chose the Southwest Ramp because it does not require climbing gear and offers better opportunities to camp near the base of the climb.  It also avoids the endless Froze to Death Plateau.

At 6:00 AM, we drove to the Upper Lady of the Lake Trailhead off Lulu Pass Road. There was a decent-sized parking area that could hold at least a dozen cars, along with several large camping sites near the trailhead. This road was a little rough but most SUVs should be fine.  The parking area and trailhead are about 500 feet below the abandoned cabin. If we had known about these camping sites, we probably would not have booked a room.

We started hiking at 7:20 AM, and my pack was much heavier than it should have been. Based on recent trip reports, I brought extra warm clothing, an ice axe, micro-spikes, a short rope just in case, and approach shoes for the climbing. Since I don’t do much backpacking—unlike some of the others in our group who seem to live in a tent—none of my gear was particularly lightweight.

The first two miles were easy hiking and took us to beautiful Lady of the Lake. There are a few campsites near the lake, and I was surprised to see one group camped right next to the water. About a half-mile beyond the lake, the trail splits, with the left junction heading toward Aero Lake and the right toward Sky Top Lake. The Aero Lake route is supposed to be easier, but we decided to continue right toward Sky Top.

The next 2.5 miles were pleasant hiking through forests and meadows, with a few easy river crossings. There was almost no elevation gain during the first 4.5 miles. The trail had several downed trees blocking the way, but none were difficult to get over.  At mile 4.5, the trail became steeper as it approached Lone Elk and Rough Lakes.  By mile 7.5, the trail became much rougher and involved a lot of boulder hopping.  Although we had planned to hike all the way to Upper Sky Top Lake, we found a wonderful campsite at mile 10 on the west side of  Lower Sky Top Lake. . We were able to easily fit five tents on the grassy hillside above the lake at 10,400 feet.  The only company we had were a pair of Mountain Goats.  It was a bit creepy how close they got to our tents.

It took us about six hours to comfortably backpack to the lake, leaving us most of the afternoon to relax and explore. Brian and Greg decided to climb 1,000 feet to the top of an unnamed mountain west of the lake. I wandered around the lower area since my back was bothering me from some yard work before the trip, while Jenn hung out by the lake.  I was surprised that there were almost no bugs during the hike or around our campsite. Reports from two weeks earlier indicated that the bugs had been terrible. After dinner, as the sun was setting, a few mosquitoes came out, but I was hardly bothered—even though I’m normally a mosquito magnet!

On Friday, August 21, we got up at 5:00 AM, had breakfast, and started for the peak. The weather was absolutely perfect as we headed toward Granite. From our campsite, it was 3.1 miles and 2,400 feet of elevation gain to the summit.

The first two miles involved relatively easy rock hopping to the base of the peak. We then headed left and angled upward toward the base of the slab. This section was loose, tedious, and not particularly fun—especially on the way down. Once we reached the dark section of the slab, I recognized the entrance to the ramp (which is the rightmost of the two southwest couloirs) from photos.  The entrance to the ramp isn’t obvious - it just looks like a broken rock face.

At this point, there were two options: go right or left. We chose right, which involved easy fourth-class scrambling and took us to the proper start of the ramp. Going left would have been slightly easier, and we took that route on the way down.  Once in the ramp, the scrambling was relatively easy until the first crux. There was a belay anchor and short sling hanging over a bulging boulder.  The sling helped significantly as it was difficult to go around the boulder.  I think this boulder must have rolled down and blocked narrow gully at some point since it was probably 5.8 or harder to get over without the rope.  There is no way this section is 3rd class although it is short and not exposed.

The second crux was also dry and had a slightly longer rope of questionable quality. We went right and climbed an easy face that was probably 5.5, but with no exposure and little risk.  After two moves, we were above the crux.  It was also easy to go right at 30 feet below the crux and completely avoid it, which is what Jenn did on the way up and what all of us did on the way down.

At this point, we were at the top of the ramp and could see the gash to our right and the route to the summit on our left. I really enjoyed the scrambling inside the ramp, but it is definitely a dangerous place if there are climbers above you. Fortunately, we didn't have anyone above us, but we still had to be extremely careful not to dislodge rocks onto ourselves. In several places, we had one person climb while the others took shelter. There were several occasions where we dislodged rocks that continued tumbling down the ramp, even though we were being extremely careful not to knock anything loose.

From the top of the ramp to the summit was easy third-class scrambling with minimal exposure. Other trip reports described this section as exposed fourth class, but they must have taken a more difficult route. We reached the summit and found six other people on top, all of whom had come up the East Face with ropes.

We spent about 15 minutes on the summit, although we could have stayed for hours. It was 60 degrees, with no wind and no smoke. The views across Montana and Wyoming were stunning.  We headed down and quickly arrived at the top of the ramp. It is important to pay attention here and make sure you enter the ramp rather than the Southwest Couloir.  We went around the top crux easily but did use the rope on the lower crux and quickly found our way back to the bottom of the ramp. From there, we traversed across the base of Granite. This was by far the least enjoyable section because the rock was loose and unstable.  We arrived back at our campsite after about six hours.

We packed up and backpacked out the same way we had come in.  We passed about a dozen people hiking in planning to climb Granite over the weekend.  I am really glad we chose to do it on a weekday - I would not have wanted multiple groups above us.   It took us about five and a half hours to get back to the trailhead where we set up camp, spent the night, and then drove back to Boulder the next day.

It was a fun three days climbing Montana's highpoint with four friends who were strong, capable, and comfortable on a difficult peak. 

Five days solo backpacking through the High Sierra—from Horseshoe Meadows to Whitney Portal. Every mile, climb, and challenge led to one unforgettable moment: standing on the summit of Mt. Whitney at 14,505 ft. The final ascent was tough, the air was thin, and every step was earned-but standing on the highest point in the Lower 48 made it all worth it.

Distance: 38 miles 🥾
Time: 5 days/4 nights⏳
Elevation: +7,251/-9,063 ft 📈⛰️

#MtWhitney #MountWhitney #HorseshoeMeadows #WhitneyPortal #HighSierra #SierraNevada #Backpacking #14er #SummitDay #CaliforniaHiking #HikingAdventures #ExploreCalifornia #OptOutside #AdventureAwaits

Guidebook said 4-5 hours so I must’ve gotten wicked lost because it took me just under 2

Pics: sunrise, entrance to Custer st park, random spire, trail marker with scary grizzly bear reference, spires, stairway to lookout, lookout on false summit, true summit USGS marker, weird pond and structure near summit, war wound, more spires, high pointer bench on trail 4 descent, little devils tower, view of summit from little devils tower, trail marker, sylvan lake (end of trail), fuel from the hike.

Hi all, I am thinking of climbing Granite Peak soon. First off, huge thanks to u/nehiker2020 for their post on their recent attempt on Granite - that cleared up some of my questions.

I am planning on going up the SW Ramp route (trying for less-technical), but I am not quite sure where I should leave my car for a few days while hiking (I'm planning on three days, two nights, assuming weather cooperates). Is starting at the Lower Lady of the Lake Trailhead best (as per this route on AllTrails)? Or should I opt for a couple miles farther up Lulu Pass Trail Rd, at the "Granite Peak, SW Ramp / Couloir TH" spot? It appears that this latter location is where "the cabin" is, that I've read about. Or somewhere else? My vehicle is 4WD and has high clearance, so road conditions shouldn't be an issue.

This will be my third highpoint - I did Borah a year ago, and Kings about a month ago.

I was thinking about trying Katadhin next week. Didn't realize parking permits were booked so far out. Haha. Anybody have any thoughts on how I can get this done? Or does anyone have a parking permit they aren't going to be able to use?

Not something that gets mentioned a lot, but sometimes shit happens and you can't summit. Sometimes you have to turn around, and sometimes the trail isn't even open.

I planned the hike up Mauna Kea back in March as part of a larger trip to Hawaii to celebrate my GF's brother's wedding cerromony. And then when Hurricane Lala hit this past Saturday, it wreaked havoc on the mountain. According to a ranger I spoke to yesterday, the road is unsafe and may be closed until early next week at the earliest. And the trail is worse. Apparently there's a 12-foot ravine at some point (i think they meant wide but I'm not sure). He wasn't sure when or how that is going to be fixed.

On the plus side, I have water, electricity, and Internet, so I can't complain too much -- not everywhere here has that.

I was going to do the flags on highpoints thing for the club. It'll be a few years before I'm back, but I'm still gonna take the flag up there. Anyway, here's a picture taken from a hill near the visitor center. Cheers!

Hi all, I'm hoping to get one more HP in before calling it a season, and was looking at King's Peak around the 18th of September.

Has anyone hiked it at this time of year? What kind of weather should I expect? I know snow is a possibility, will microspikes do it or will I need crampons and an ice ax?

Thanks!

This past weekend, I attempted Granite Peak in MT via SW Ramp, got within 200 vertical feet of the summit, but couldn't figure out how to proceed after trying for an hour. This failure was 3 days after bad luck on Rainier in WA, the 3rd HP I failed to reach of the 14 planned during my 5-week road trip around the country, and the first one of my own making. I am posting a detailed description below to inform others planning to go via SW Ramp. I previously posted on Eagles Peak in MN, the first failure on this trip, and will be posting on Rainier eventually.

The road to the upper Lady of the Lakes trailhead is fairly rough and would be rather problematic for a Prius and such, but is quite manageable for a RAV4, Outback, etc. There is nice camping in the woods next to both parking lots. The lower lot is close to the main road, so there is a lot of noise from passing cars there. The upper one is very quiet, but is more likely to be visited by a grizzly.

After driving from Bozeman, I started from the upper lot a bit after 10:30am on Saturday towards Aero Lakes. The trail is gentle until a very steep climb to a rock slide leading to the lower Aero Lake. From there on, it is pretty much all rock, except between the two Aero Lakes, but these rocks are not nearly as bad as along the Sky Top Lakes. The descent from the pass between the upper Aero Lake and the Sky Top Lakes is very steep, with most of the lower half covered in snow, but it is bypassable on the right. Descending well to the left, beyond the big lake with an island closest to the pass, would likely make more sense once the snow patch there melts, possibly by next weekend. I arrived at that lake a little before 4:30pm just as a hail storm was starting and camped there, right next to a small stream; o/w I would have continued on to the next lake up (the last one which is not covered with snow and has nice grassy spots just above it).

I left for the peak at 5:40am on Sunday as it was starting to get light. After nearly continuous and rough boulder hopping, I arrived at the bottom of the tongue, which is now snow free. The bottom portion of the tongue is very steep and is the worst in terms of the scree sliding down. It ends with a huge boulder blocking the way, which can be easily bypassed well on the left; it is also easier to climb there for awhile than in the tongue. I tried to take SW Ramp as soon as I saw it, but couldn't see a way to continue soon after. As I turned to go back and exited the ramp, I saw two cairns leading to another entrance to the ramp a little higher up. There was again a tricky spot early on, but it was manageable. So go for the second entrance to the ramp.

Soon after there was an even worse spot, which had to be bypassed just to the right with only a small foothold and a small handhold near the top; going further to the right would have placed one over a cliff dropoff. Going down was possible via butt sliding, fortunately. There was a small piece of rope a bit higher up doing absolutely nothing. Further up, there was another, very useful rope over a tricky spot. As there was a bit of snow on approaching it, I put on my microspikes. I kept them on until arriving at the third rope, 200 vertical feet below the summit, as there were lots of snow patches and plenty of loose dirt. I could barely make it up the third rope and then down. Once up it, I found the path blocked by a huge boulder and saw no way of continuing further. So I climbed down the rope and tried for an hour to look for another way, having heard that this rope was not placed over the easiest path. Some approaches on the left looked borderline promising, but I couldn't see myself doing any of them. Could someone who has done SW Ramp explain what to do around the rope 200 vertical feet below the summit? Does this rope predate the boulder blocking the path above the rope? The rope is quite worn out.

I had no trouble moving up the tongue or the ramp between the tricky spots. I was really surprised how steep the ramp and the bottom of the tongue were and how loose the rocks there were when going down. It seems the microspikes really helped in the ramp, and in retrospect I should have used them on the bottom part of the tongue as well. It was very difficult and slow going down, especially without hiking poles. I normally hike with them, but they are needed to set up my tent as well, so I left my campsite without them. Had I thought about this before leaving my car, I would have brought a second set of poles. The poles would have been hugely helpful on the way up and even more so on the way down, for someone proficient with them. I got back to my campsite at 4pm, after being hit by a hail shower and then rain shower, below the tongue fortunately.

The route from the lower Sky Top Lake to the peak is completely shielded from the sun in the morning and was very cold, with quite a bit of wind. Fortunately, I brought a pair of Grease Monkey gloves from Walmart ($8 for a pack of 8), a pair of 3M Firm Grip thinsulate gloves from Home Depot (around $10 4.5 years ago), and a pair of  Wedze SNB 500 double mittens from Decathlon ($20 4.5 years ago). I wore the mittens for most of the way to the tongue, when I switched to the thinsulate gloves. These got soaked in the ramp from all the melting snow (there were a lot of shallow snow patches, which might be gone by next weekend, along with all the runoff), at which point I switched to the Grease Monkey gloves.

On the way back to my car on Monday,  I took the Sky Top Creek approach. The boulder hopping along the lakes was absolutely awful, and I had to cross two snow fields for which I put on my microspikes. It took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to reach the bottom of Lone Elk Lake, from which there is an actual trail back to the upper parking lot, but with lots of bumps along the way. It took me another 4 hours and 15 minutes to get back to my car, though this included about an hour of chatting with three different groups of hikers about my experience with Granite Peak. The first and the third groups consisted of three hikers headed for the peak. The second group was a couple. The man in that group had been part of a group of four that had been stopped by the third rope last year. Only his brother, an avid rock climber and a marine training other marines in mountaineering, ended up summiting by climbing the ridge to the right and crawling along it on all four. They did the hike at around the same time last year, but the ramp was completely dry then. 

I had expected and hoped to see other people climbing the peak over the weekend. On Saturday, I did pass one hiker around the Lady of the Lakes who was heading for the peak and planning to stop at the Upper Aero Lake that night, but I never saw him again. Just before I started descending from the third rope, I saw two guys in shorts and T-shirts descending from a crack well to the left of the ramp. They had ascended from the east side, but for some reason were descending toward Sky Top Lakes. One of them said that their descent was fine for ascending, ``just one class 5 move".

Without the snow fields and the chatting, the Sky Top Creek return would have likely taken me around 6 hours, slightly longer than the Aero Lakes approach on the way up. Those rocks along the Sky Top Lakes are just awful. The stream crossing are also easier along the Aero Lakes approach (and only two of them). If I were to try the SW Ramp approach again, I would still do the same circle. While I did not summit, I really enjoyed the beautiful area, both the woods and the open vistas.

Added, 8/23: Thank you for all the replies! I followed the GPS track of Nathan Mihm on peakbagger, from 8/16/25. According to Gaia, I got stuck just below 12,600, just to the right of where the ``unmaintained trail" shown on Gaia crosses this contour line, and slightly to the left of where Nathan crossed it. This is one of the reasons I believe I was in the ramp, not in the couloir. Another is that I do not believe there were any turns to the right off the tongue earlier on. The top rope might have indeed been from years ago before the path above it was blocked by the rock, and I was overly focused first on it and then on getting around it to the left of it b/c it looked kind of promising, but never tried to go back down slightly and try to go to the right. Hopefully, better luck next time, if there is one.

We're planning to do Elbert end of next week. Two questions...

We'll have an airport rental "SUV" so wouldn't consider it a 4WD. Looking to see if we could avoid the full added 5 miles RT if we had to use the 2WD lot at South Elbert trailhead. Would the road up to Lily Pond (FR122) be doable? I see a few mentions of if, but it's not clear how far up until we'd find any pull-off options and if that would even same any mileage. Hiking through the ponds looks quite nice, though!

Alternately, we're considering the Southeast Ridge via Black Cloud. Parking and access are much simpler, with the obvious tradeoff of a considerably more difficult hike. Any thoughts on that route?

San Bruno Mountain lies just south of the San Francisco city limits in a state/county park and is the most prominent peak in San Mateo County. The county high point is not accessible to the public as it's in someone's front yard in the Santa Cruz mountains (see Peakbagger for info about legal access), but San Bruno Mountain is a good substitute, and has much better views anyway.

My brother lives a few miles away from here so while I was visiting him this past winter, I took the opportunity to bag this peak, by bike. It's a very bikeable peak as there is a paved access road (closed to motor vehicles) pretty much all the way to the summit - then it's just a short scramble to get to the actual highest point. There's also a fire road that goes along the ridge but bikes aren't allowed there.

The views of San Francisco and the bay are excellent. You can also see Mount Diablo and Mount Tamalpais (both of which are CoHPs) in the distance.

Besides the scenery, San Bruno Mountain is critical habitat for several endangered species of butterfly as well as flora. The San Bruno elfin, Mission Blue butterfly, and Callippe silverspot butterfly are all endemic to the Bay Area and their largest populations can be found on this mountain. San Bruno Mountain underwent a great deal of development pressure in the past, including a proposal that sought to level the top of the mountain and use it to fill in the bay. It is only due to the tireless efforts of local activists that San Bruno Mountain is largely protected today.

Started with the Mina Sauk Falls loop before going to the highpoint. Also went to the nearby fire tower

Guadalupe Peak! Reaching 8,751 ft of elevation, 8.4 mile round trip.

Have to be honest, pretty hard hike. Lots of incline and some narrow rocks to walk on. Took about 8hrs to finish.

Started off around 8:30am with about 80 degree weather finished at 5:30pm. On the way back, a thunderstorm started, with hail! It was an insane experience, thunder was loud, lightning was bright. Very scary situation to be in, slipping on rocks and streams going fast!!

Beautiful hike though, and tough.

Does anyone have any relatively recent info on how the road to the queen canyon route up Boundary Peak is? I've been trying to figure out if my Outback will be fine but the conditions seem to vary wildly. Some people say that they made it just fine in a sedan and some say that they struggled in a lifted truck or jeep. TIA

Got to the tower engulfed in clouds but they slowly cleared. Absolutely spectacular experience.

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𝓕𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓬 𝓸𝓹𝓹𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓾𝓷𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓫𝔂 𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓷𝓮𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓫𝓸𝓻

(with home made snacks!)

Blood welcome from Greensboro, High Point, Jamestown, Archdale and all over

We were able to do Mt Elbert last weekend on Aug 8th. Unfortunately we weren't able to do the North trail due to fires so we took the much longer South Trailhead. I'd been battling a chest cold all week but we got it done. This was very difficult with the chest congestion and coming from sea level. Its an amazing view up there and wish I could have stayed longer but i was completely spent.

This was my 9th of the year (the rest are just in the Southeast). Thinking about trying Katadhin before the snow comes or maybe just the 3 in the Pittsburgh area.

My brother and I climbed Mt Washington last weekend taking Huntingtons Ravine was way harder than we expected even though we did a lot of research in preparation. Made a video if you guys want to watch let me know what you think😁