Enchantments Thru Hike + Enchantment Peaks 8.23.14
Both Aaron and Sara wanted to do the Enchantments thru hike, only Aaron wanted to do it as a trail run. They settled on a date which luckily fell on a sunny day in between two days of thunderstorms. Aaron, Matt, and Ben would run it while Sara and I hiked it. We drove out Friday after work and got a camp site at Upper Johnny Creek. The alarms went off at 4am and we begrudgingly got out of our sleeping bags. After failing to find water at Johnny Creek in the dark, early hours of the morning we drove to Eightmile so the guys could get water there and finish packing their packs. I dropped my car off at the Snow Lake trailhead, then jumped in Sara’s car and she drove us all up to the Stuart Lake trailhead. I gave Aaron an extra key to my car while Matt got Sara’s key, and they were off. A bit later start than we were hoping for but we hit the trail at 5:40am. Lightweight was the theme of the day and my pack was around 11 pounds. I carried the water filter while Sara had the first aid kit.
Colchuck Lake with Dragontail and Colchuck Peaks looming above
We made good time up to the lake, hitting the north end of Colchuck Lake about 1.5 hours after starting. We took our first break and I got about half way through my Jimmy Johns sandwich while Sara started in on her alpine burrito. I was really hungry, very odd for my normal climbing appetite, so I kept eating. We followed the cairns and boulder hopped along the south end of the lake until we picked up the cairn trail up Aasgard Pass. This is the first time we had headed up the pass without snow or ice. We mostly tried to follow the dirt footsteps on the rocks towards the piles of cairns, making steady progress up. We stopped about 7000’ and I finished off my sandwich while taking a break.
View of Colchuck Lake and surrounding mountains from near the top of Aasgard Pass
We longingly looked above us where the sun was breaking over the pass, looking forward to the added warmth. We made the top of Aasgard pass in 4 hours and 45 minutes, the fastest ever for us. Sara found a nice, sunny rock with some great ledges for sitting and we stopped to scope out Enchantment Peaks while sunscreening up.
Dragontail as seen from the upper basin
Looking up the ridge of Enchantment Peaks, we followed that up
Since we made it up a lot quicker than anticipated, we decided to tag Enchantment Peaks while we were up there. I mean the thru hike by itself isn’t challenging enough, right? We picked a route up the ridge and started up the sandy slope, trying to kick steps in the soft stuff while following goat tracks. We came to the first rock pinnacle and started scrambling up. Sara checked her GPS though and we were still a couple hundred feet shy of the summit. We backtracked, found some sandy benches below us, and traversed across to the next highest rocky point we could see. I scrambled up a gully and from there could see taller rocky outcrops beyond so Sara hiked through the notch and found a way up more sandy benches so that we could continue to the top.
Enchantment Peaks summit, time to find the path of least resistance up
View of Little Annapurna from the ridge on Enchantment Peaks
The first rocky pinnacle looked fairly shear so we tried for the middle one of the southwest summit. I found a chimney, squeezed up it, and then did some more slab moves to reach the top part. Granted there was a skinny rock that was maybe 15 feet higher than me but I didn’t feel like trying to climb up that so I called it good, took some photos of the awesome view, and we started the down climb. We grabbed our trekking poles on the way down, crossed back over the notch, and enjoyed some summit treat pixie sticks. Then we carefully picked our way down some more sandy benches with lots of loose rock until we could get in the open sandy slope, down which we plunged stepped – it was like heaven on my knees.
Summit view to the west
Summit view to the east
We didn’t head back down the exact way we came up, staying on the east side of the ridge instead, so we followed the slabs down until we could pick up the trail just above Inspiration Lake. There were lots of people on the trail now, after we got down from the peak. We got some watermelon from one group before stopping to eat and filter water at the little stream between Inspiration and Enchantment Lakes.
Enchantment Peaks
We hit the trail after our break at 2:30p and Sara went into downhill mode, quickly moving through the core. We followed cairns as fast as possible across the slabs, getting ahead of a couple of groups. I tried to snap pictures every so often and then run to catch back up. Sara almost ran into a family of goats so we quickly found another way around to avoid dealing with them.
McClellan Peak
Sara helped, adding another rock to the cairn
I must say the hiking across slabs is much better and goes a lot faster when you don’t have blisters on both heels. We made a deal before the trip: since Sara hates Aasgard she could complain and be grumpy until we got to the top of it. No one could be grumpy hiking through the core, because honestly, with that scenery how could you be? And then I got to be grumpy and complain once we started down from Lake Viviane on the never ending Snow Lake trail.
Lake Viviane
We were making pretty decent time down, remembering landmarks from our trip in that way last Labor Day. My knees were starting to hurt so I was thankful for a quick break at Snow Lake. I asked for at least one more break on the way down, but luckily I got a few more.
Snow Lake
We made it down to Nada Lake before taking another break. I finished off the last of my food (except for some Gu packets) and rested the knees. Sara figured we could make it out by 8p, 2 hours plus a 10 minute break from Nada Lake. I made a request to stop twice, once at 6:30p and once at 7:15p to take a five minute break for my knees.
Looking down at Nada Lake
Not only were my knees really hurting, but eventually my feet were too. My approach shoes were great except for the last 4 or so miles out when my feet cried every time I had to step on a little rock and not flat, dirt trail. We hit the final switchbacks about 8p, a little behind schedule, but powered through to the car, making it down without headlamps. After hiking 21 miles, all I wanted to do was sit down. We drove into town with the guys as they filled us in on the fun adventure trail run they had, and we hobbled to the new sausage stand for some dinner. It was a great day in the Enchantments, I just wish the Snow Lake trail was a bit shorter.
Sunset as we were quickly trying to get back to the cars before having to pull our headlamps out again
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Our thru hike of the Enchantments, heading in the Colchuck Lake side and out the Snow Lake side, with a side trip up Enchantment Peaks, 21 miles total
Trail up to Colchuck Lake, around the lake, and then up Aasgard Pass
Our trail up Enchantment Peaks, we came down the otherside of the ridge than where we went up, to catch the trail at a different location
Trail coming down through the Enchantments basin
Final leg of the trail out from Snow Lake and then passed Nada Lake