Granite Peak in Montana was pretty amazing. First off, I must thank Britt (globreal) for the excellent TR he did in 2016. His extensive info was so useful that we chose SW Ramp instead of FTD. What a great choice!

I couldn't put Britt's TR link in this report for some reason, so I posted it below in the comment section.

Stereo311 and I met in Cody on Wednesday and drove to the TH on Thursday. We had an easy time finding an obscure TH. There was no signage for SW Ramp TH. The only sign was for Lady of the Lake which would work but adds some mileage.

Around 9am we left the TH and made great time to the Tri-Creek crossing. Britt is correct in stating this could become the "standard route" as the trail is very defined until around Rough Lake (~ 8 miles in).

We did have a few water crossings that required shoe removal but it felt good actually. We made such good time that instead of camping at Rough Lake we decided to go to Sky Top Lakes....somewhere. After Rough Lake we missed the turn off Britt mentions because we didn't want to cross the river again and cairns marked an obvious route to Sky Top. Unfortunately, this added 1/2 a mile or so to the hike but it was straightforward. After 10.8 miles and 7.5 hours hiking we camped at a grassy spot around 10,400. The mosquitoes were really bad after Rough Lake but curiously neither of us got bit. Lucky or the bug spray worked.

Friday we woke around 4:15am and started hiking at 5am. We made good time early but made another mistake Britt warned about gaining the saddle between Cairn and Granite peaks. We shot up right when we should have walked a bit further up and left. It's counter-intuitive because it looks like you'll drop down and head to far left. It doesn't. Both of the mistakes we made on the way up we didn't make on the way down and we saved time and energy. Pay attention to these two areas to avoid unnecessary hiking.

Interestingly, after a "record snow year" we were shocked and amazed to find less snow than Britt had on his trip. We brought ropes, ice screws, pons and axe only to find the ramp completely dry. There were hand-lines in place for the two cruxes and we used them if needed. Again, a really well cairned route meant we had no problems moving up the gully and ultimately the summit. We stood atop the summit at 7:30am. We chose to rap down the missing "ice crux" to save time and ultimately got back to camp at 11am. Packed and on the trail we put on the afterburners. It was akin to a mini death march. Three river crossings later we finally made it to the TH at 4:00.

This route is deceiving in one respect: elevation gain. On paper it looks like the TH is at 8800 and camp at Rough/Sky Top lakes is around 10,200. So it looks like 2000' of gain in 9-10 miles. But, you have a lot of up and down and twists and turns that add up. There was several areas where the creeks required you to go up and around rather than walk thru water. Also, there is quite a bit of boulder hopping above Lone Elk Lake so be prepared to be off trail for a while.

Other notes: there was snow in many other areas. We crossed several snow slopes to get to camp and the summit and some were at an angle that required kicking steps. In the morning, walking on the snow vs the rock made for quick travel. Also, the snow "tongue" was passable on the left. Feel free to PM if you want other info. If Granite Peak is on your list, go get it!

Day one mileage: 10.8 7.5 hours

Day two mileage: 16 11 hours

Stereo311 took some great photos and made a video which can be seen below.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rfkg_b44Xs&feature=youtu.be