Snow in the Enchantments

"Myth has it that the Colchuck Lake approach to the Upper Enchantments, pioneered by climbers aiming at the peaks of the Dragontail group, is an easy shortcut and has solitude to boot. Don't believe it. Four things are terribly wrong with the entry via Aasgard Pass: It's not easy; actually it's a climber's route, usually requiring an ice ax, sometimes rope and crampons, and in early summer the ability to recognize avalanche instability. It's dangerous, not only from falling off cliffs or slippery boulders or snowfields or from being fallen upon by snow or rock, but also from summer storms that at these elevations can be distinctly hypothermic and from summer snowfalls the already difficult descent of boulder fields a very long nightmare...Why, then, is the route in this book? As a warning against myths. To save the innocent from being suckered in by "the easy way to the Enchantments." Also to quash the faddy notion that this is a classy and sassy way, the route of the big kids. For anyone it's a tasteless route. For hikers lacking climbing equipment and training, it's a route silly to the point of suicidal."

Ira Spring The Mountaineers

The Enchantments is an amazing high country granite basin in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Cascades. The area sits at 7800 feet and is full of small tarns and lakes of spectacular beauty. October is Larch season in the Enchantments. Last year at the same time I completed an amazing trifecta trip with Joe, this year I planned a similar traverse. By the time the trip rolled around the last man standing was Kyle. The plan was for a one day 18 mile traverse, up Aasgard and out Snow Lake to Icicle Creek. As the rain fell all week off and on in Seattle, I watched the forecast with nervous anticipation. Wednesday the snow level fell to 4000 feet, and after reading about snow on the rebar steps below Lake Vivianne I decided to to forgo the thru-hike and go in and out via Aasgard.

Thursday at lunch a group of work mates were taking pictures of me taking everyone's orders and when I returned to the table my camera wouldn't turn on. Arrggh! Disaster. I called John Gillmore, and he agreed to allow me to borrow my old D70 that I had sold him. After work that evening, Kyle stopped by and we got together gear for the journey, I lent him a shell, puffy, some gaiters and a hiking pole. We grabbed a tent, my bag and pad and after stopping for some taco's at Chipotle were on the road by 7. We arrived at Icicle Creek around 9 pm, pulling off onto Eightmile road we camped by the creek. Amazingly there were 5 VW Vanagon's at other campsites, and another pulled up after we had gone to bed. Pretty weird coincidence for a vehicle that hasn't been made since 1991. Maybe there was some sort of Vanagon convention nearby. We set up a tent, the bright stars and crescent moon were foretelling of tomorrows weather. I quickly fell asleep to the sounds of rushing waters of Icicle Creek.

The first of 3 alarms on my watch went off at 4:30 am. We quickly changed, while the other two went off and packed up the tent before driving up the road to the Stuart Lake trail head. By 5:30 am we were on the trail, headlights cutting a small halo of light in the dark morning as we plodding up the trail. Things were dark enough that as we came to the main footbridge crossing Mountaineer Creek I didn't see the bridge and was confused for a brief moment. As we split off from from the Stuart Lake trail, we caught a glimpse of the brilliant white summit of Mount Stuart shining with the first suns rays. As we made our way across Mountaineer Creek again, a light dusting of snow covered the trail; Tiny footprints of chipmunks, rabbits and other varmints crisscrossed ours as we continued climbing through the dark forest. With each step the sky lightened; as the day dawned we arrived at Colchuck Lake. Quietly so as to not waken those sleeping in their campsites, we made our way around the lake to the southern end.

Colchuck Lake is a beautiful teardrop sits at the base of Colchuck and Dragontail Peak, which rise 3000 feet above. Over time snow and ice have cleaved massive hunks of granite from their fortress of stone. Only the largest rocks have the mass required to propel them the furthest down the slope and thus giant boulders, some the size of small houses, lie at the lakes shore. They are strewn in a jumbled maze, a challenge in dry conditions and with a slight skiff of snow and a bit of ice, the crossing while not impassable, was tedious. Finally across the talus, at the bottom of Aasgard Pass we stared up the mile remaining and the 2200 feet to the top. The snow at the bottom was a couple of inches, which was actually nice because it made for more solid footing than the usual scree gravel. From the bottom of the pass its hard to know the amount of snow one will find above, the distance is too great to offer any real detail.

Despite the snow we could pick out the cairns as we made our way up to the stand of larches that sits halfway up the pass. By the time we arrived at the trees snow was around 6 inches deep and had slowed things down a bit. As we climbed upwards the cairns began looking more and more like any other snow covered boulder. In places when you stepped into a hole, you'd sink to just below your knee. As we neared the rock cliffs on the east side of the pass (the left hand side as your looking up from Colchuck Lake) the snow had drifted to a depth where you'd post up to your hip. From here we traversed beneath the cliffs and frozen waterfalls and made our way up through the rocks and the scrubby larch. We got a little too far to right and at one section I had to give Kyle a foot or two for him to get up and he returned the favor with a hand. Finally as we neared the top the sun caught up to us. The warmth of its rays was wonderful after slogging in the shade and snow for the better part of three hours. A few short switch backs and we arrived at 7800 feet above sea level, the top of Aasgard Pass. Total time from the lake to the top was three hours and 15 minutes.

The weather was gorgeous, clear blue skies with sun and the upper basin covered in a field of white crystalline snow. Friday was the one perfect day among a week of rain on either side. With Dragontail looking on, we wandered across the pristine snowscape towards some large boulders that were free of snow where we plopped down in the sun to have some lunch, dry out and warm up. Thirty minutes later we could feel our toes again and we set out making our way across the snow down towards the lower lakes.

There was 12-18 inches of snow and yet the fierce winds had scoured many spots where the tops of rocks poked through and filled the holes with snow. Making your way was like walking on a minefield, step carefully and where the snow wasn't hard you'd sink to your knees or deeper. Hopping from rock to rock avoided this, but even postholing in the soft snow was fun, although tiring. As the upper basin spreads wide and Prussik Peak towers over the stands of Larch, they were striking in their yellow contrast with the white scenery. The snow made for slow going and given that we had a return trip down Aasgard, we only went as far as the overlook of Crystal Lake. Far below the dark blue waters stood in stark relief to the snow surrounding it.

Sadly we turned around and followed our footsteps back to Aasgard. We stopped by a small stream to refill our water, not bothering to filter what had moments before been snow. By 3:15 we were back at Aasgard, we put back on our shells, tightened our packs and battened down the hatches. This time the snow was on our side; roughly following our ascent we slid and jumped down the snow fields. There was plenty of snow to jump in, but not enough to worry about any slides. What took us 3 hours to ascend took us just over an hour to get down. Near the bottom the snow became more a nuisance than a help. We passed a climber, the only person we'd see on the trail all day, with a very heavy pack moving at a snails pace. I hope he had daylight to make it to the top, I wouldn't want to be doing the upper sections in the dark, at least he had our path to follow.

After picking our way down the lower sections of gravel we came to the boulders again, most of the snow had melted, but unfortunately just enough to create a little ice. Kyle sighed stating he was tired of boulders. We picked our way around the bottom of the lake and then down, down, down, down on the trail towards the parking lot. The trail seemed to go on forever (they always do at the end of a long day) and we kept saying "I don't remember this much elevation, or coming this far". Each footstep hurt as the nerves of our feet reminded us we'd been on them all day. As darkness fell, the trails steep descent brought groans and sighs as our legs, knees and feet trembled with each the thudding step down. Kyle commented "it seems that its been more than one day." We wondered if we were still on the right trail and we resisted putting our headlamps on as long as we could. Finally in almost pitch black Kyle threw his pack down to put his light on. 90 seconds later we saw the dome light of a car in the parking lot.

13 hours and 51 minutes after we started, we were done. The day ended the way it began, in the dark with headlamps. It was a LONG day, but fun. Periodically you have to attempt something epic to remind yourself of the beauty of the world and the mettle of your spirit. In the car as we were changing out of our boots Kyle said : "Its going to be a long time before I go on another long hike with you Mark". We drove to Leavenworth to get a burger at Heidelburger and then made the drive home listening to Kyle's eclectic collection of one hit wonders on his I-pod.

Stats

• 2 hours to from Stuart Lake trail head to Colchuck Lake. (Seem like a long time for just over two miles, I blame the darkness and the 2100 vertical feet)
• 1 hour and 16 minutes around the lake and across the boulder field a the south end of the lake below Aasgard Pass.
• 3 hours 15 minutes to climb to the top of Aasgard Pass
• 31 minute break for lunch, to dry out and warm up
• 90 minutes hiking down to Crystal Lake
• 81 minutes hiking back up to Aasgard Pass
• 1 hour and 9 minutes down Aasgard Pass
• 2 hours and 48 minutes back across the boulder field, around the lake and back down to the car.
  

Total trip time : 13 hours 51 minutes
4835 vertical feet
13 miles

Lessons Learned : Remember to take sunglasses

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