Enchantments: Larch Season 10.19 - 10.20.13

Fall of 2009 was the first time I heard of the new and mysterious Larch tree. Well, new and mysterious to someone who had grown up in the Midwest and just recently moved to the Pacific Northwest. I was fascinated by these conifers that were really deciduous trees and located in very specific, beautiful alpine areas. I read somewhere that they were in the Enchantments and by Ingalls Lake, so being in my first year of hiking, I took a trip to Ingalls Lake. Unfortunately it was raining and the visibility was really poor, but I made it to Ingalls Pass and could barely make out some golden Larch trees through the clouds. A week later the forecast was for a gorgeous October day so I decided to head up to the North Cascades for my first time and hiked the Maple Pass Loop and Blue Lake trails. It was my first good viewing of the golden Larch trees covering the mountainsides - it was beautiful. I really like the contrast between the normal green Evergreens and the golden Larch, I feel like it really highlights the uniqueness of the Larch tree. Having seen these mysterious trees in person and in a gorgeous setting, I had my Larch fix for a couple years. Last year my interest was rekindled and I thought about heading up into the Enchantments, but the weather wasn't great and we chased the sunshine to Vantage instead. This year, in April, I decided I wanted to do a backpacking trip into the Enchantments for the sole purpose of seeing the Larch trees and taking pictures, so I put it on my calendar for the first weekend post permit season in mid October.

As October 19th approached I was amazed that the forecast looked great - sunshine and clear skies. I couldn't believe my luck, now to find someone willing to hike up into the Enchantments Basin with me. After having done the hike in via Snow Lake over Labor Day, I was planning to head back in via Aasgard Pass. I prefer the short and steep to the long and never ending. Sara was sick and tapering before the half marathon, but she was nice and came with me so that I could go play in the mountains. Apparently I only hike up Aasgard with Sara, but it's worked pretty well so far. It had snowed a few weeks prior so I read through as many trip reports as I could to figure out conditions. It sounded like there was a pretty consolidated and slick boot pack up Aasgard Pass and then snow in the basin, but a good boot pack there too. We decided to bring trekking poles and crampons, and leave the ice axes and snowshoes at home. My main objective for the trip was to hike around the Enchantments, taking pictures of Larch trees. Tagging a summit would just be icing on the cake. My theme for the weekend was warm and comfortable. We brought the half dome for a little more space, and I had my down booties, big puffy as well as some long underwear to stay warm at camp. The technical gear for the weekend was the 4.5 lbs worth of camera and lenses Sara would haul up. I stuck with my little point and shoot, which I'm waiting for the screen to finish cracking and fall off. Generally Sara and I head up Aasgard and into the Enchantments in May or June, when there's more sunlight. I was anticipating 8 hours for us to get from the trailhead to the top of the pass with our overnight packs and both being sick, so we decided to leave Seattle at 5:30am so we could be on the trail by 8:30am.

First view of Draongtail and Colchuck Peaks from Colchuck Lake

I expected the trail and area to be busy, since it was larch season and the first non-permit weekend during a beautiful weather window. The parking lot was pretty full but we found a spot and started gearing up. I had brought my new knit hat, with the softest inside ever, as part of my post climb happy bag but Sara convinced me to bring it with. I had another fleece hat packed in my bag but I threw it in anyways - best decision ever as I pretty much lived in that hat up in the basin. We hit the trail about 8:40am and started the familiar trek into the Enchantments. We kept up a steady pace, not super fast, but we weren't taking many breaks either. We played leap frog with a few groups on the trail, taking our first break at the fork so I could eat a little something. We made it to the lake in about 2.5 hours and traversed to the south end before taking another break so that Sara could stash her approach shoes and change into her boots, while I grabbed some more food. We stopped on the rocks right before leaving the dirt trail for the boulder field.

View from the south end of Colchuck Lake

Cue the slip and slide boulders. The traverse around the south end of the lake was our introduction to the slippery boot pack that awaited us throughout the weekend. The ice was a bit treacherous as we slowly made our way over the boulders. We saw Danika, Devin, and crew on their way up to the Enchantments as well, and let them pass as we continued at our leisurely pace.

The golden Larch trees mixed with the Evergreens

Finally, after a bit of sliding around, we made it around the lake to start up Aasgard. There was a bootpack up this as well, still pretty icy towards the bottom. I mostly tried to stay on rocks that looked dry, or find a little bit of snow to step in when I could. Luckily my terrible skinning skills in backcountry skiing helped because I'm used to putting all my weight on my poles in anticipation of my feet sliding out from underneath me. We met Carter on his way down, and he promised better snow as we got higher in the pass. Eventually the bootpack, while still solid, seemed a little less icy so we made some steady progress up. The track went up the climber's left side of the pass, so a little different down low from the normal tracks we take up.

Heading up Aasgard Pass

We reached the sun about 7000' and took a quick break. I had been feeling so so throughout the day, but kept trying to eat to keep my energy up. The sun was soon retreating up the pass so we didn't stop for very long before continuing up. As we neared what seemed like the top, we had to traverse climber's right to actually make it up.

Nearing the top of Aasgard Pass

We met a few people coming down, otherwise we were mostly on our own. There were still several groups coming up behind us. We made it to the top of the pass around 3:40pm, about 7 hours after leaving the car - better than I expected! The day was definitely beautiful, although we had spent most of it in the trees and shade. We had a great view to the west from the top of Aasgard Pass, the best view I've ever had there. I never realized you could see so many mountains!

View to the west from the top of Aasgard Pass. Colchuck Lake, Larch Trees, and mountains - amazing what you can see when it's not clouded in

I was lagging more than I expected, so our next order of business was to find a spot for camp. We started into the Upper Basin, again, a little amazed but what I could all see. It's always been socked in when we come up Aasgard Pass. Dragontail looked a bit more intimidating without as much snow, and we had fun trying to figure out how we had headed up Little Annapurna. We also checked out the snowfield up the ridge of Enchantment Peaks as that was an option for the weekend.

Dragontail, Little Annapurna, and Enchantment Peaks

We started dropping down from the pass and the wind picked up, so we kept hiking to try and find a wind block for camp. I was pretty tired and ready to be done, so after passing a couple more ridges we called it a day by a nice big rock we found, conveniently located next to a little water fall and stream. Sara picked out a relatively flat area and we stamped out a tent pad in the snow. She leveled it off and we set the tent up. I can't remember the last time I slept in the snow in a tent with vestibules. Unfortunately we didn't find any good rocks or hillsides to duck next to out of the wind, so Sara built a snow wall for us while I got some water from the stream and boiled it. As we ate dinner and boiled water, the sunset cast some amazing colors on the mountains around us. McClellan had this awesome red, while there was fun blue and purple in the distance by Prusik.

Sunset

A couple other groups were also camped nearby, in addition to some goats. I don't think I've been up in the mountains to see the goats' winter coats. They definitely look more intimidating, not to mention their long horns.

Winter goats look big

I made my typical rice and chicken for dinner and got about 2/3's of the way through before I gave up. I was starting to feel a little better, but it was getting dark so I crawled into the tent. The moon was ridiculously bright so Sara had fun hanging out the side of the tent taking pictures of it. Unfortunately I started to feel worse, reminiscent of my trip to Gothic Basin with Aaron. I had my big puffy on, hat, down booties, long underwear, in my 15 degree sleeping bag with a hot water bottle but my body was still convulsing. I didn't think I was cold, but I didn't know what the cause was either. I just focused on falling asleep and think I succeeded by about 7:15pm. Sleep cures all, or at least you get to ignore whatever is ailing you while you sleep. I woke up several times throughout the night, almost in disbelief at how bright the tent was from the moon.

The giant moon before it dropped below the horizon

Finally around 7:30am I woke up for good, but was reluctant to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag. I wasn't overly warm, just comfortable. Sara got up to take some pictures in the morning sun before the giant moon dropped below the horizon. Finally I got out of my sleeping bag to snap a few pictures myself. We hung out in the tent eating some breakfast, deciding what we wanted to do. In an effort to get back to the car by sunset at 6:30pm, we wanted to be at the top of Aasgard Pass by 1pm. We figured if we wanted to get down the pass and across the icy traverse around the lake by sunset, the latest we'd want to leave the top of the pass was 3pm. Given that timetable and knowing how far it was to McClellan, we quickly decided to take that one off the table. It looked pretty rocky from where we were, and knowing the sparse snow over rocks condition isn't favorable, we figured we should wait for better snow cover before heading up that. Both Sara and I wanted to hike into the basin at least as far as Prusik Pass, which is the point we had hiked into from the other side. Then we could complete the trail through the Enchantments. I grabbed my pack, food, clothes and put on some sunscreen and we finally left the tent about 9:15am to keep hiking. The boot pack was still pretty slick, especially interesting over the slab rock which had large patches of ice. Luckily we kept our footing well enough in all of the places that it counted.

Larch trees in the morning sun above us

The larch trees were awesome in the basin. They were a little past peak gold and were slightly on the brown side, but when they were lit up by the sunlight they looked great. We each snapped away as we passed trees, mountains, and lakes. The purpose of the trip was to come take pictures of the Larch trees in the basin and we were certainly accomplishing that.

Approaching Inspiration Lake with a great view of the Larch trees in the basin and Prusik Peak in the distance

There were lots of people on the trail, most of them planning to head down via the Snow Lakes trail. Most said Aasgard was a killer on the way up, so they'd take their chances finding a ride from Snow Lake back to the Colchuck Lake trailhead. Unfortunately for Sara, I wouldn't even entertain that idea and planned to head back down Aasgard.

Lots of golden Larch trees with Prusik looming in the distance

We were amazed to find some big, old Larch trees in the basin. Generally we see the smaller ones. I also really liked the trees that were curvy, almost spiral like. Prusik was a defining feature on the horizon and made a great additional subject for all of my pictures of the Larch trees. The lakes were especially calm too so we got some great reflection photos.

Reflections in Perfection Lake

We made it to Prusik Pass and had to figure out what we wanted to do next. It was about 10:45am. I wanted to hike just a little farther around Perfection Lake to get some more photos, but then we had to figure out if we wanted to try and run up Enchantment Peaks or not. We figured either way, we should head back to camp to hit our 1 - 3pm window at the top of Aasgard Pass. As we started back I said I just wanted to head down. I didn't feel super strong on the short hike back so I wasn't sure how long it would take to run up Enchantment Peaks. Besides, it's a perfect objective for another day trip into the basin for next year when we're escaping the dreary weather everywhere else in the state. Sara seemed ok with just heading down so we took our time at camp as we packed up, and left about 1pm. Most of the groups had packed up and headed down the trail to Snow Lake, so we had the upper basin mostly to ourselves.

Hiking back through the upper basin of the Enchantments to reach Aasgard Pass

As we were nearing the top of the pass we ran across a group of four goats, three big ones with a little one. Whenever there's a little one I get especially nervous, and those horns looked pretty long and pointy. Sara and I grabbed some rocks, then Sara channeled Matt's herding skills and yelled at the goats as we threw the occasional rock to keep them moving ahead of us. Of course they moved along the trail so we had to keep up the shenanigans for a while until we separated enough. Glad to be past the goats, we now had Aasgard Pass to deal with. We left the top of the pass about 1:45pm, right in the middle of our targeted time window.

Awesome view from the top of Aasgard Pass before heading back to the real world

We didn't put our crampons on yet, but intended to when things seemed too icy. We slowly made our way down the top section, and finally agreed to put the crampons on when we got to a relatively small flat section we could sit at. Putting on the crampons was the best decision. We had to contend with a few rocks here and there, but we had such better traction in the snow I think it was worth while - I'll just have to sharpen the points later. There were a few people heading up Aasgard as we made our way down. Most people seemed to have the same opinion about Aasgard, that it was pretty terrible in general. At least this time Dragontail wasn't shooting rocks down the pass. We made it to the bottom of the pass in about 2 hours and then had the traverse ahead of us. We kept our crampons on as long as possible, but finally ran out of snow for the most part. I was sad to put them in my pack as I slipped my way down the rocks. I had a lot of close calls that I barely recovered from. I was grateful when we stepped back on the dirt trail, all of the worst conditions behind us. Now we just had Sara's favorite part left, the 4.5 miles of trail back to the car, starting with traversing around the lake. Sara happily retrieved her approach shoes from the tree she stashed them in by the lake and we took off.

One last view of Dragontail and Colchuck before we start the hike down through the trees

We passed a few groups along the trail, trying to keep up a good pace to make it out to the parking lot before dark. Along the last stretch of the trail it was pretty dark in the trees so I fished my headlamp out and gave it to Sara since she was out front. I was OK as long as I could follow her feet. Eventually she thought it was too dark and got her headlamp out as well, which apparently did the trick because a couple minutes later we were back in the parking lot. We quickly threw our packs into the car and changed into some warm clothes before heading into town to grab some sausage for dinner. It was a great weekend in the Enchantments despite the icy conditions to reach it. I finally got up there for my Larch trip and couldn't have asked for better weather. I don't often go into the mountains without a climbing objective, so the relaxed photography trip was a nice change of pace.

Hike into the Enchantments via Colchuck Lake and Aasgard Pass

Hike around Colchuck Lake and up Aasgard Pass

Our trail through the Upper Enchantments, over to Perfection Lake

Birdseye view of the Enchantments and our hike for the weekend. We camped where the yellow line stops