After a night at the Pine Grove campground we drove up to the Mystic Lake trailhead, the start of our attempt on Granite Peak. Cheryl, Helen and I finished our last minute packing and started up the trail at 7:30 am. Working our way uphill, I watched the level of the aqueduct across the valley to know how much higher we needed to travel. Passing rock slides and aspen groves the trail finally leveled out and I knew we were close.

As we stepped through a rocky notch, Mystic Lake folded out below us. The lake is natural, but the dam was added to deepen it for power generation. While our eyes feasted on the views, we found ripe berries growing beside the trail to feed our stomachs.

We passed a few fishermen as we followed the path along the lake shore. Another long break was in order once we reached the sign directing us uphill via the Phantom Creek Trail. Slowly we rose to our feet again and reluctantly left the lake shore and began the climb.

The Phantom Creek Trail gains about 2,500 feet over less than 3 miles as it switchbacks up the south side of Mystic Lake. I tried to establish a slow but steady pace as we lumbered up under the weight of full packs. The trees began to thin out and slim down as the sun came out of the clouds. If it wasn't for the wind, it would have been a really sweaty affair.

After a hour of climbing my altimeter indicated we were about half way through with the climb up to the Froze-to-Death plateau. I found one of the last trees large enough to offer shade and sat down. Helen was right behind me, and Cheryl just a minute behind. We were making good time, but I was anxious about finding a good spot to camp up on the plateau.

Probably too quickly, we took off again. After crossing a few dry creek beds we contoured below steeper slopes and traversed toward the saddle. I noticed two climbers descending toward the trail from above and called another halt to rest and wait for their approach.

They told us that crampons weren't needed on the snow bridge we'd heard so much about and recommended caching them here instead of hauling them any further. Unfortunately, I planned to come out via another route, so that wasn't practical for us.

We left the trail and worked our way up trackless slopes to the so-called plateau. True, it is flatter than most of the surrounding terrain, but we still had about 1,500 feet to gain to camp over 4 or so miles. Once on Froze-to-Death plateau, the wind picked up and we had to carefully pick our way over rocks and boulders. Even worse, were the few wet and grassy areas. The grass tuffs effectively hid ankle-turning holes. However, we were glad to know that water would be available on the plateau.

We passed a few other climbers descending from weekend attempts on the peak, sometimes receiving conflicting information about the snow bridge. Helen began to really slow down and I grew worried since she had remained strong for our entire trip to climb Gannett Peak last year.

Above a melting snowfield we took a long break and Helen made sure to eat and drink plenty. Cheryl and I glissaded down to the snow to bottle fresh water straight from the source. Helen was nearly asleep by the time we walked back up, but she was feeling a bit better.

For the next couple hours we continued at a slow pace across the rocky plateau. I attempted to follow the few rock cairns, but mostly just stuck to a long view of heading roughly where I thought we needed to go. I could imagine what a pain it would be to hike across the plateau in a cloud and just in case we needed to retreat back down this route I took a few GPS waypoints along the way.

We passed by one solo hiker whose hat read "Friends of Granite Peak". He was part of a new group that was trying to clean up some of the mess caused by large numbers of climbers in a fragile alpine environment. While not climbing this weekend, he was up taking a survey of the number of parties camped out on the plateau. We told him where we were from then he congratulated us on bring helmets and blue bags (for packing out solid waste).

After climbing up a few hundred feet more we saw a group standing around below some large boulders. They quickly convinced us that this spot was the most well-protected on the plateau, and that water wasn't too far away. Other sites were closer, but much more exposed to the wind.

We were ready to listen to an argument for stopping, so we took their just vacated tent sites. We'd climbed nearly 6,300 feet in elevation gain over the course of the day with full backpacks on. Before taking a well-deserved nap we all agreed that it was the greatest one-day climb we'd done fully loaded.

Before dinner I set out to survey the plateau and figure out where exactly we needed to head the next morning. I walked up the plateau's edge and was rewarded with great views of Granite Peak and down the valley to Avalanche Lake. With luck we'd be hiking back out that direction.

I moved along the rim and found the exposed tent sites right at the edge of the void between Tempest mountain and Granite Peak. The rock walls had been built up nearly to tent height, and I could imagine the wind would make for a low-sleep night if we'd camped here. It had been demoralizing enough on the hike in across the plateau.

I estimated it was a 30 minute walk to this point from our camp, so an extra one hour on our summit day. But I was sure the extra time was worth the protected spot we'd been talked into. I stopped for some water on the way back to our camp and thought how easy it could be to get turned around out here.

After dinner I setup a 15 foot practice rappel on the boulders above us for Cheryl and Helen to have a real experience in the technique before we had to do it 'live' the next day. Then I reviewed how the belaying and climbing would go on our ascent.

Before falling asleep, we prepared our day packs and agreed to be moving by 5:30 am.