Granite Peak, 12,807'
June 28-29, 2025
Granite Peak is Montana’s highest mountain and stands at just over 12,800 feet. Laura and I had planned to climb from the northeast via a class five ridge, beginning at the Mystic Lake trailhead. After planning a trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone with Grandma, Hazel and Bob, we changed our route as it was much closer to ascend from Lady of the Lake trailhead near Cooke City, Montana and climb the southwest ramp and couloir. The hiking distance was further, but the scenery was said to be much better and the route slightly easier.
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| Justin by Lady of the Lake |
With the recent snow that had fallen, we made the decision to go the scenic route and save ourselves four or five hours of driving time. We’re off and rolling out of our campground at Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Hazel is staying with Grandma and Bob. She’s excited to be camping again this summer!
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| Buffalo in the Lamar Valley seen on the drive through Yellowstone |
Our original plan was to climb over the 4th of July, but the weather forecast adjusted and it looked like the weather was poor at the end of the week and good at the beginning. We made a judgment call and left as soon as we could. The drive up through Yellowstone National Park and into Cooke City, Montana was uneventful, but we drove through both Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley and saw lots of wildlife.
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| Some of the buffalo were very large |
After stopping for gas to refill, we are at the trailhead for Lady of the Lake at around 1 PM. The initial 2 miles of the trail to Lady of the Lake drops downhill and is a relatively good trail with about 400 feet of elevation loss. From there, the trail became less defined as it worked its way through open meadows and forests with occasional rocky sections. There’s been snow in the area just a few days ago and with the recent melt-off it made things muddy and wet. Laura and I did our best to keep our shoes dry knowing that we’d want dry, warm shoes for tomorrow climbing the mountain.
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| Justin at the first stream crossing |
At 4 miles we came to our first stream crossing and took off our shoes and worked our way across the fast-flowing stream. We then encountered several more crossings in the next couple of miles, and at the last one, as soon as we cross the river, we walked right into a recently dead deer or elk carcass. We were lucky that there was not a bear there but imagined that the bear would come back soon for its next meal. We got out of there as quick as we could and continued on. In the distance clouds were building and we were concerned about thunderstorms, even though the forecast was for just a very small percentage chance of rain.
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| Justin hiking up through the forests and meadows on the approach to Granite Peak |
Passing by Lone Elk Lake and several other lakes, we continue to gain elevation and after five hours, the rain was imminent. As the sprinkles began to fall, we were near the shore of Rough Lake, still a mile or more from where we wanted to camp but as the rain became more steady, Laura and I rushed to find a flat spot and set up our tent as quickly as possible.
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| Justin skirting around Lone Elk Lake |
We set up in an exposed area next to some rocks and sheltered in the tent to wait out the rain.
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| Sheltering from the rain in the tent |
During a break in the rain, we rushed to cook dinner and eat away from our tent as we are concerned about grizzly bears in the area. We borrowed Grandma‘s small handgun for safety; however, we still did our best not to attract the animals.
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| Justin cooking dinner during a break in the storm |
After hanging our food to keep it away from the animals a second storm quickly approached; there was lots of lightning and thunder in the distance. We discussed a plan of trying to hide in a cave under a boulder for better shelter from the lightning if it got too close, but we were lucky and despite quite a bit of rain, the storm passed without too much close lightning and thunder. We messaged Brian, Laura‘s brother, several times looking for a weather forecast, hoping that it wouldn’t be terrible for the next morning; however, his first message said "not looking good"; it sounded like there was a 50% chance for heavy thunderstorms and rain the next day. Surely, we wouldn’t be going for the mountain. It was 9:30 at night and Laura and I agreed to set a 2 AM alarm to wake up and look at the skies. If they were clear, we would go, if there were clouds, we would stay and pack out.
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| Our tent on a hill above Rough Lake |
After a few hours of restless sleep, we woke up and noticed mostly clear skies except to the southwest, where we were concerned that storms would build from. We were disappointed but came to the conclusion that it was likely a bad decision to try for the summit. We knew there was a good chance that if we did go, we’d get two hours up the trail and end up turning around. We went back to bed until our 5:30 alarm. When we woke at 5:30, we looked outside, and the skies were completely clear. In the same manner as she expressed excitement to go for the summit on Denali, she said the same thing today, "let’s go!" Let’s go!
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| Justin crossing a snow bridge early in the morning |
We quickly changed into our hiking clothes and got moving. We knew we’d have to push it to beat the storms so we were moving fast and as efficiently as we could. We started off by walking along the shore of Rough Lake and crossing the snow bridge upstream.
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| Justin navigating through the snow fields and rock outcroppings on the approach to Granite Peak |
We crossed several more snow fields and even put crampons on to cross a steep snow field at the upper lakes. We moved as quickly as we could, and after about hour, at 6:30. We passed a campsite with two other climbers; the only other people who we’d see the entire trip. They were cooking breakfast and didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so we let them know that there had been a change in the forecast and then took off across more snow fields.
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| Our first views of Granite Peak came into view as we rounded the Sky Top Lakes |
The upper Sky Top Lakes were frozen with snow and feet of ice, so we chose to walk straight across the last one. From the upper lake, we encountered about half rock hoping and half snow travel until we reached the snow tongue at the base of our route.
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| Justin at the snow tongue where we would put our crampons on |
Once again, we put crampons on and got our ice axes out. Laura and I had chosen to go with the hiking crampons and our tennis shoes as we’re quite comfortable in them on moderately steep snow that isn’t extremely hard or frozen. Overnight temperatures were probably right around freezing, so it made good snow conditions for climbing, and we felt comfortable on the roughly 35° slope.
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| Laura and Justin on the snow tongue at about 11,500' |
We climbed the snow tongue, which traversed left under a huge rock slab and then worked back right up into the southwest ramp/snow couloir.
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High in the SW couloir on Granite Peak
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We climbed approximately 1,200 feet of the couloir before I cut off left and worked up a low fifth class section of rock to reach the ridgeline. Laura opted to continue along in the snow for a few hundred feet before exiting on the ridge.
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| The route Justin took |
The scrambling was more efficient than climbing the snow as Laura had ultimately exited onto a pretty exposed area of rock herself. I was able to scramble through one short technical section and continue along easy third-class terrain reaching the summit at about 9:45 AM, 10 minutes before Laura arrived. I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of her on the ridgeline.
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| The precariously balanced rocks on the ridgeline |
Somehow, Laura's cell phone received service and she saw a new message from her brother Brian. It was a picture of the forecast that he had likely sent the night before, but since we only had satellite communications earlier, it hadn't come through. It was just another reminder to hustle and try to get below tree line before noon. Laura traded a few messages with him and he congratulated us on beating the storms.
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| Looking across the gash at Justin on the summit |
Laura reached the summit soon after I did as the clouds once again continued to build for future rain storms. We spent only a few minutes on the summit before starting back down in the race against what we thought was imminent rain.
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| Laura and Justin on the summit of Granite Peak |
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| USGS benchmark on the summit of Granite Peak |
We hustled down the now softening snow in the couloir and passed the two guys who we’d seen early in the morning. Neither of them had proper climbing crampons and were struggling to climb the snow. We gave them the beta for the rest of the route and talked to them about snow conditions, then continued back on down the mountain.
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| Justin climbing down the snow tongue |
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| Looking back at Granite Peak and pointing out the route we had taken |
Arriving back at our camp around 12:45 PM we made a batch of Ramen and quickly ate while packing gear and were hiking back down the trail around 1:15. The clouds seem to dissipate at this point although we still felt like we may get rained on. We set a goal of reaching the trailhead by 5 PM, which would mean we’d have to hustle on the way out. We moved efficiently and quickly where we could and opted to not take our shoes off at the river crossings, instead just going straight across and keeping moving, which saved us probably 30 minutes of downtime, putting shoes and socks on and off. Hustling the 8 miles out from camp, we ended up reaching the trailhead at roughly 4:55 PM. Our first day was 8 miles. Our second day was roughly 18 miles total with roughly 3,700 feet of elevation gain to the summit and back to the car. We are thrilled to have summitted Montana’s highest mountain, and the scenery and experience was amazing.
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| Justin nearing the Lady of the Lake Trailhead |
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| Clouds in the valley below Granite Peak |
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| Summit block of Granite Peak |
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| Justin walking back toward the Sky Top Lakes on descent |
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One of two bears seen on the return trip through Yellowstone
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| Some of the wildlife seen on the return drive through Yellowstone |
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| More buffalo in Yellowstone |
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| There were lots of baby buffalos as well |
