Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion How is Granite East Ridge?

This is only tangentially related to the Sierras, but I'm curious as to what you guys think of the Granite East Ridge route. I've heard its the hardest state high point to climb (MO), and I'm curious how the route compares to some of the peaks in the Sierras. Is it something like a longer Sill/Midpal/Russell? Or is the climbing much more difficult than that?

First of all, can you identify what and where the "granite east ridge" is? You mentioned "MO" as in Missouri, but what mountain?

Unlikely to be Missouri, as highest point is Taum Sauk Mountain at 1772', and that is a "walk up" and is ADA accessable.

My guess would be Montana, Granite Peak. According to Summit Post this peak is considered one of the most difficult of the 50 state high points. I did not see any reference to "East Ridge", but I did not look long.

I didn't do the East Ridge, but HERE is a TR from 25 years ago.

Apparently not…my bad, I typed this up at around 3 am and I thought the abbreviation for Montana was MO. Whoops.

Thanks for the TR Bob. I read it earlier and it’s what sparked me asking this question. I wasn’t sure how MT’s rating system compare to CA’s.

It’s 25+ mi and the summit block is apparently a low class 5. I really don’t want to walk all that way just to turn around, but my peakbagger friend from CA said it’s comparable to Russell in terms of exposure. It’s why I figured to solicit beta on this forum, because at least it’s a more standardized definition of the difficulty.

Russell is very exposed in places, but the climbing is only class 3 (if you do it right). Granite required a lot of class 3 and class 4 climbing. There were places where I did class 5 moves, but I could have kept it to class 4 with a bit more route-finding effort. I had rock shoes, and the climbing was really fun!

For those of you that don’t know, I dayhiked Mt. Humphreys last summer with Climby and four other people. We were all successful, but we spent considerable time screwing around with a rope. If I remember right, Granite had more rock climbing than Humphreys, and it may have been a little harder.

It was a brutal 16-hour day with rock shoes and no rope 25 years ago, when I was younger and faster. If you bring a rope, plan on an overnight trip. Choose carefully when you decide whether to bring a rope, rock shoes, both, or neither.

One of my longtime climbing partners has done all of the 50 state high points (I am not a high pointer, but did do Gannet Peak, Wyoming with him). He reported to me that Granite was "Gannet Lite" due to the long approach hike, but the climbing according to him was tough class 3. The route he took had no glacier travel. I could ask him to send me beta on his route if you like.