West Granite

Started from the Talapus Lake TH at 9:06, summitted at 1:30 and arrived back at the cars at 4:50. The elevation gain is 2930 with this start.
We left the trail at a point due west of the summit and attempted to ascend due east. However, after a few hundred feet of dry forest and deadfall, all we could see above was slide alder, so we traversed left to open terrain, ascended some talus, then traversed right and got onto snow at 4700'. The snow was continuous with good step-kicking to the summit. Partly in the interest of exploration and partly because we weren't anxious to go straight down and get into slide alder, we elected to follow the ridge that trends WNW down to a saddle, then back toward the lake. This is a feasible as a descent, but not strongly recommended: you can stay on the right side of the ridge and downclimb some dicey snow (there would have been major cornices earlier) or stay on top or the left side and deal with evergreen brush and rocks.