Winter Scramble - West Granite

Our experienced group of 6 discussed cancelling for a couple of days, but in the end decided to go out and make very reserved terrain choices on West Granite despite avalanche danger being high with persistant slab, storm slab, and wind slab in the forecast.  

There was a few inches of snow at the trailhead and even up to 3500 feet, only about a foot of snow.  We skirted through the woods to avoid the main avie track 1/2 mile up the trail.  Left the trail at 2900 and followed easy terrain in the trees.  When the route steepened and became more open, we zig-zagged to keep on lower angle terrain and inside trees, stopping when going further would expose us to open slopes above us.  About 4900 feet.  

Happy to get out and keep it safe this day.  The weather was also a challenge;  25 mph gusts, 8-12 inches forecast.  It snowed the entire 6 hours we were on the mountain.  

Dave dug a pit at 4500ft to find the persitent layer burried by 4 feet of low density snow, and was amazingly ~1 foot thick itself.