Trip Report: The Enchantments

I managed to snag a three-night core permit for the Enchantments from July 1st through July 4th – but just for myself. This year Enchantments permitting migrated onto Recreation.gov for the first time and the system is somewhat different. Last year you just requested a permit for a given entry date and then once you won the permit lottery you were able to adjust the number of people as you saw fit (up to a maximum of eight if I recall correctly). So this year when it asked for the number of people up-front I just put in one since I figured I could fix it later. I could not. So I had to fly solo on this one.

The initial itinerary was to go up Aasgard Pass since I’d never done it before, spend three nights at the north end of Perfection Lake so I could take shots of the Milky Way, and summit Enchantment Peak, Cannon Mountain, Little Annapurna, and McClellan Peak to keep myself occupied during the day. It was… a little too ambitious in hindsight.

July 1st: Colchuck Lake and Aasgard Pass

I left Seattle around 5AM and took I-90 east before heading north through Blewitt Pass to Leavenworth. I stopped at the McDonald’s there for a light breakfast and my last civilized restroom break for the next few days. I arrived at the Colchuck Lake trailhead around 8-ish and found it about half-empty with no cars lining the sides of the road in. Last year when we were in the Enchantments I remember the conga line of day hikers snaking through the basin so this seemed like a good omen as far as crowds.

The hike into Colchuck Lake was unremarkable. The trail follows Mountaineer Creek south before splitting off from the Stuart Lake Trail to begin the climb up to the lake.

There was a decent amount of folks hanging out at the lake which made sense since the weather was incredible and there weren’t any bugs. I stopped twice for snacks and water as I made my way around the lake. Once you reach the base of Colchuck Peak the trail stops and instead you follow cairns across a massive boulder field. On the far side of the field at the base of Dragontail the trail is spotty and there are a few really nice-looking lakeside campsites. Pushing onward past the trees lands you at the base of Aasgard Pass.

Now, I had heard about how brutal the pass was but I don’t think I really had any clue. It was a hellish mess of weaving footpaths and boulder hopping from cairn to cairn. It took me three and a half hours to cover only a mile and a half of ground, and two of those hours were spent resting. Holy. Shit. I swore to myself that I would never do it again.

About three-quarters of the way up the pass was the only remaining snow crossing. It was a wide and short and well-trodden path that was also completely avoidable by descending 20-30 feet and just walking (well, boulder-hopping) around the bottom of the snow patch. Just before the patch was a nice resting spot with some shady boulders and a good deal of running water so I stopped to filter water and snack.

Luckily the sun was in and out of the clouds and there was a slight breeze so the ascent wasn’t in roasting summer conditions and it was early enough that there were still plenty of shady spots along the way. I couldn’t imagine doing this in the afternoon sun.

The only reward as you work your way up the pass is the increasingly amazing view of Colchuck Lake below.

After what felt like forever I finally reached the top of the pass. Dragontail Peak and Witches Tower loomed above.

At this point I was wiped out. My goal was to reach Perfection Lake and set up camp but it was another two miles of snow crossings to get there and I was worried about whether there would be any spots left. I made it about another mile and passed several empty campsites before finally choosing one next to a giant boulder.

Dinner was the AlpineAire Forever Young Mac & Cheese which I chose because it had the most calories out of any of my dinners. It was a watery, slightly cheese-flavored soup with little half-circles of spaghetti noodles instead of macaroni. It was disgusting but I ate it anyway.

While the dinner was heating a trio of goats (including an adorable baby) moseyed on into my camp. They checked out my tent, my now-empty stove and pot, and just about everything else in their quest to find pee. Surprisingly they never gave a second thought to the bear canister of food that was sitting right out in the open.

I wasn’t sure how to handle this initial encounter so I leaned up against a flat rock near the edge of the campsite and sat still with the camera waiting to get pictures. Unfortunately I guess I was too still since the lead goat walked within just a few inches of me and when I hopped up onto the rock to get away it got startled and made a little yelp. Then it went right back to sniffing all my gear so I suppose it wasn’t exactly traumatized. After a good twenty minutes of doing lap after lap around the boulder and following me around they decided to head west to a much larger group campsite to try their luck there.

The thermometer recorded an overnight low of 37F. It didn’t get dark until well after 9PM and since the Lunar Solo is a light gray color I had to wait quite a while to fall asleep since I can’t sleep when it’s light out. I think there’s a sleeping mask in my future. Oh, and this time of year in the core it starts getting light out just after 5AM so that’s fun as well.

Despite telling a couple other backpackers to be sure to check out the stars in the middle of the night I slept right through until morning. Whoops.

July 2nd: Perfection Lake, Prusik Pass, and Enchantment Peak

I was worried that Aasgard Pass had wrecked me and that I’d have to take it easy for the next day. It turned out that my legs and feet were fine but my appetite was ruined. I gagged on my cereal (which I normally enjoy) and some of my sweeter snacks and had to settle for sausage, cheese, and trail mix for breakfast. This is the first time I recall having eating issues on a trip and I’m assuming it was exertion-related, but it’s definitely given me pause as to what kinds of foods I’ll bring on harder trips. In any case I didn’t touch my three breakfast cereals for the rest of the trip which was a loss of about 2,000 to 2,500 calories – not good.

After packing up I made the descent to Inspiration Lake and then quickly moved on to the north end of Perfection Lake where I scouted out my Milky Way shot location. According to the PhotoPills app the core of the Milky Way would be centered in Enchantment Pass between the two peaks right around 2AM. I’ve determined that I can’t really trust the compass in my phone so I set an alarm for midnight so that I could verify that 2AM was reasonable as well as check whether cloud cover would make the shot possible or not.

I then set up my second campsite in a tiny circle of trees just off the trail to Prusik Pass. I ditched all my heavy gear – tent, tripod, ice axe, bear canister, etc. – and got ready for my day hike/scramble to the two summits of Enchantment Peak.

The trail to the top of Prusik Pass was short an uneventful. From there I had a view of both the northern core and Shield Lake as well as the central core and Perfection Lake and friends. However, the views from the pass were nothing compared to the views from Enchantment Peak so they didn’t make the cut.

Heading west from the pass there were no trails and, after a short while, no trees- just a big granite playground of massive slabs and boulders. The first obstacle was this cliffy point of rock so I steered south of the ridge to avoid it.

I ended up sticking to the southern “edge” of Enchantment Peak as I made my way up and taking the northern “edge” on the way back. The views were incredible.

I decided that I would approach the southern summit first and then follow the ridge to the northern summit. Since I had all day to wander around I figured this would allow me to see if there was an easy way from the northern summit to Druid’s Plateau and Cannon Mountain without doing too much backtracking. My hope was that if I had time I could add those two destinations in as well.

I had checked out the Enchantment Peak entry in Beckey’s Cascade Alpine Guide as well as entries for several other peaks in the area and penned in some potential routes on my map as a result. When it said that the south summit of Enchantment Peak was reachable as a scramble from the top of Aasgard Pass I figured that this meant in addition to the obvious route of heading west from Prusik Pass. For my equipment and skill level I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The south summit of Enchantment Peak is a needle of rock with a cliff for a northern face. This cliff hits a small gap before dropping another 400 feet to the west. No thanks. Instead, I “summited” the little block of rock to the right which was just a few feet lower. The exposure was tolerable – only two bad moves away from death instead of one at any given point – but when I got to the tiny little top I was too scared to stand up and started hyperventilating a bit. On the way back down to the safety of the gap where the above photo was taken I started talking out loud to myself about each individual move. I was definitely pushing the boundaries of my scrambling comfort zone but I’m proud that I attempted my little false summit and succeeded.

Alright, now on to the northern summit. This one I knew was at least accessible from this direction and it didn’t look too spooky from a distance (it wasn’t some crazy needle of rock) so I was hoping I would fare a bit better.

Along the way I saw some crazy rock formations and had some amazing views of the surrounding mountains.

So here we are just below the northern summit of Enchantment Peak. You could step around the large central block using the ledges and cracks to the right, but this puts you above a 30 foot drop which I wasn’t a fan of. Unfortunately having never been here before I missed the actual route which is the stairs to the left of the central crack in the block. Whoops. In any case I turned around just a few feet short of the summit. I don’t recall there being a lot going on past the rock on the left side of the picture (meaning, it was a giant cliff) and so I don’t know if I would have been comfortable taking that route even if I had noticed it.

Following the cliffy northern face of Enchantment Peak back down to Prusik Pass netted some amazing views of the northern core.

Upon returning to camp I realized that I was now out of paper tape. Since I no longer had a way to prevent blisters I wouldn’t be able to do any serious day hikes the next day so I decided that I would probably cut the trip short. Sad given the difficulty of obtaining permits but the weather forecast also wasn’t what I had hoped – clouds, clouds, and more clouds – and I had overpacked for fear of snowy conditions. I was also running low on food that I actually wanted to eat.

It rained on and off for the next few hours. This gave me a chance to finally test out my Sierra Designs Elite Cagoule in actual rain and it performed like a champ. Dinner was AlpineAire Santa Fe Black Beans and Rice. It was excellent.

July 3rd: Heading Home

In the morning my boots were still wet but I had a dry pair of socks to change into. Since it was 6AM and I knew I had a decent amount of snow to cross heading back I wanted to keep my feet warm and dry as long as I could. Fortunately I’ve been bringing bread bags on my trips for the past couple months in preparation for something like this so I gave them a whirl and they were great. My feet stayed warm and dry for at least an hour while I trudged through snow until eventually they got too warm and I took the bread bags off.

Gear

LighterPack: https://lighterpack.com/r/4k83o7

What worked:

• Sleep gear was all exceptional except for the inflatable pad
• Nylofume liner worked great. Yes, it crinkles, but only when you’re packing/unpacking and not while you’re walking around so it doesn’t bother me in the slightest
• Oboz Sawtooth Lows are incredible hiking shoes. After two solid days of hopping around on rock my feet still felt great and they were never cold. Yes, once they get wet they stay wet, but I can work around it.
• Sunday Afternoons Charter Escape is an incredible hat. Keeps the sun off, comfortable, light, breathes extremely well. Not once did I feel like it was too stuffy to wear even after hours in direct sun at altitude.
• Tifosi Crit Polarized Smoke sunglasses. Wore them from sunrise to sunset and they were great. Much darker than my previous unpolarized sunglasses (never again!) and I never felt my eyes getting tired and I didn’t get any headaches from light sensitivity. Honestly they almost looked like they weren’t dark enough on the snow and rock but I think it was just my brain compensating – I never felt the need to squint. With my previous pair of Tifosi Seeks FCs I was constantly squinting on sunny days at the beach due to all the reflection off the sand.
• The Massdrop Veil continues to be my all-time favorite piece of outdoor clothing. Being cold while moving is a distant memory.
• Coppertone Clear Sport sunscreen rocks. Yes, it’s got a nasty chemical vapor that irritates your eyes, but it goes right on and I never notice it afterwards. I definitely never get that greasy feeling that I’ve had with Banana Boat Sport. I applied it at 10AM and noon every day to cover solar noon and that was about it.
• The 45mL Litesmith sunscreen container. Should easily hold about 4 days worth of sunscreen, maybe 5.
• Nitecore NU25 headlamp. Red mode was great for astrophotography (especially when I accidentally left it on) and the new ultralight headband from Litesmith has reduced it to feather weight – much more comfortable to wear and it was already comfortable before.
• Nitrile gloves kept my hands warm while I was making and eating dinner in the rain. Just need to remember to put them on right away instead of waiting for my hands to get wet and cold. Oh! And I used them to pick up some trash on the way out.
• Sierra Designs Elite Cagoule was awesome in the rain. Combined with the nitrile gloves only my knees got wet (my shoes were already wet).
• Lightrek Pack Bungee Attachment was great for adding an ice axe to the Osprey Levity pack once I figured out the right thing to attach it to (one of the buckles for the top pouch).
• Water system is completely dialed-in. The Vecto gravity filter is such a pleasure to use. I actually tried to only carry a single bottle of water to reduce weight and didn’t mind all the extra water stops.
• Since I was out solo and looking to do some off-trail exploring I sent my wife tons of messages on my inReach Mini. Pairing it with the phone via Bluetooth so that you can type out messages more quickly is key but cycling the Bluetooth on and off to save power gets old.
• Fuji X-T20 and XF 16mm F1.4 are pretty killer for astro. Didn’t even have to try very hard technique-wise and ended up with star shots that blew away my previous Olympus OMD EM-10 Mark II with the Rokinon F2.0 lens.
• I brought a mylar bag to hold used toilet paper in case the toilets were usable. They were not. However, I was able to use it to store gross trash instead so still a win. I think I’ll be taking one of these on every trip from now on.

What didn’t:

• I think I had the Levity loaded up a bit more than it was supposed to handle, my shoulders were extremely sore by the end of the first day but fine afterwards – not sure if I dumped enough food weight or they just needed some “breaking in”
• The Lunar Solo is great but it is lightly colored which makes sleeping in it while it’s still light out impossible (for me at least). I’m considering a sleeping mask for daytime naps.
• The Big Agnes AXL Insulated Air is just too cold for anything under 40F. Even paired with a Gossamer Gear Thinlight foam pad I could still feel the cold creeping up after just a few minutes. I also had to re-inflate it three times on the second night. Person B gave up on hers on the AT because of constantly having to re-inflate it, maybe mine has the same problem. But damn is it comfortable. Honestly I think I’d rather just bring a thicker foam pad (I was going to bring my Nemo Switchback but just didn’t have space) rather than get a different inflatable, but we’ll see…
• Prana Stretch Zions were a bit warm hiking out. I’ve ordered a pair of Montane Terra Pack Pants to try out as a possible replacement. My concern is that the Zions’ warmth is also an asset – my legs are never, ever even a little bit cold regardless of temperatures, wind, or activity level. I’m much happier too warm than too cold so I’d hate to replace one tolerable problem with a pile of intolerable ones.
• MeFoto Backpacker Classic Tripod. It’s just too heavy, and since the only thing I use it for is astrophotography (I lost interest in daytime long exposures) I’m questioning whether I need all that height since it’s just pointing at the sky. I’m looking into replacing it with something smaller and lighter. r/ultralight suggests the Feisol TT-15, Slik Mini Pro 3, or the Ultrapod II. I’ll be doing some research later to identify the best option.
• Fuji X-T20 bulb mode. I had to hold the button down manually which introduces shake. Pairing the camera with the phone app is unreliable so I’m thinking a manual shutter release cable might be the way to go. More weight, though, but replacing the tripod should dwarf it.
• Bic Mini is crap with even the slightest breeze. Would like a windproof alternative but my initial understanding is that windproof lighters are pressurized and don’t work above a certain elevation (I’ve heard 5000ft tossed around and I was way above that). A keychain taser was suggested online. More research!
• Paper tape. Not just because I didn’t bring enough but because it kept sliding out of place and I was getting hot spots on the balls of my feet. This had never really happened before but this was also the first trip in a while with so much rock work so I’m thinking it just surpassed what paper tape is capable of putting up with. And so, after having spent so much time evaluating different tapes and having paper tape come out the clear winner I’m going to have to re-evaluate. At a recent work event I got a chance to talk to a KT Tape rep and I’m wondering if the stickier pro-grade stuff might be a nice halfway point between paper tape and Leukotape P.

Unused:

• Black Diamond Raven Pro Ice Axe. This was a last-minute panic purchase to replace my regular Black Diamond Raven and shave off a couple ounces. Unfortunately (depends on how you look at it, I guess) there wasn’t enough snow to justify bringing it. The old one is in consignment so that’ll help offset the cost, but the lighter weight of the new one will help with future snow scrambling trips.
• Showers Pass waterproof socks. Since the bread bags did such a good job of keeping my feet warm I don’t think I’ll ever bring these again – they’ve been sentenced to the unloved gear bin.
• Signaling mirror. I like the idea of a mirror but I think Gossamer Gear sells a cut-down version that would allow me to keep the functionality while reducing weight.
• Lens cleaner wipes. Probably should have used them though since my last few pictures definitely had some softness on the left side of the lens – assuming it was a smear.
• Snowline Chainsen Light traction. Bought it, didn’t bring it, now I can’t find it :/

Flowers and Critters

I spotted two marmots sunning themselves on rocks, one on Aasgard Pass on the way down and one near the southern summit of Enchantment Peak. Unfortunately neither of the pictures turned out since wide angle lenses and wildfile photography don’t mix.

Goats: I lost count. They’re like fluffy white pests with horns – they’re exciting the first time you see them and then when they start stalking you and won’t leave your camp you start to feel a bit differently.

Finally, lots of chipmunks and squirrels. I heard but never saw some pika on Aasgard Pass.

Flowers are a bit light at this elevation, but I still managed to find a few:

Food

What worked:

• Costco nut bars are off the charts good. The best granola bar I’ve ever had. I think it’s the salty chocolate coating.
• Fruit snacks.
• Tillamook cheddar cheese squares. I couldn’t stop eating them so I think I’ll be bringing a lot more on future trips. Surprisingly they didn’t get too oily from the heat.
• Artisan dried meats that I picked up at the father’s day fair at Amazon
• Costco steak strips. Basically fancy jerky.
• Costco dark chocolate-covered mango slices. Also surprisingly didn’t get all melty over everything, they kept their composure.
• Instant thai tea. Amazing. But two cups of tea right after dinner is a lot, I definitely had to force it down a bit the first night because I was in a hurry to get to sleep and didn’t want to have to dump it out.

What didn’t:

• Breakfast cereal. As mentioned earlier I almost threw up trying to force this down and had to give up. It’s been my go-to breakfast for months and I’m always trying to find ways to spice it up (peanut butter powder, dried raspberries, etc.) but something just wasn’t right. I think it was the goat milk being too sweet. I think I’ll have to either switch to dehydrated regular milk or figure out some other breakfast options.
• Caramels. They’re already semi-solid so I don’t know what I was thinking taking the wrappers off of them. They just melted all over everything. Next time I’ll leave the wrappers on. Derp.
• Caffeinated jelly beans. They taste gross compared to regular jelly beans (although the cherry flavor is tolerable) and they also melted all over. I think I’ll try the regular sport beans (electrolytes!) next time and see if they fare any better.
• AlpineAire Mac & Cheese. Gross.

In other news I’ve discovered that Instacart’s thing where you can only order Costco muffins in a half-blueberry/half-chocolate two-pack doesn’t translate to real-world Costco so I’ve loaded up on chocolate muffins.

Maps

Gaia folder link:

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/owFEItejNeK3aLyuR9XPjYr5

I’m going to try to be good and remember to track all this stuff going forward so that I can share it.

I’ve added in the northern Colchuck Lake toilet and associated trail to OpenStreetMap so it should show in up Gaia at some point.

Photography

SmugMug gallery link:

https://turigrinos.smugmug.com/Adventures/2019/The-Enchantments

My reason for selecting these particular dates was that it coincided with the new moon which meant that I would be out during peak Milky Way visibility. There’s a particular shot I’ve been dreaming of getting for a year now: the core of the Milky Way reflecting in Perfection Lake between McClellan Peak and Little Annapurna. Sadly, I did not get the shot this year due to cloud cover but I’ll definitely be making another attempt next year (permit lottery willing).

Here’s the dream shot but about two hours early when I was testing out camera settings:

I realized after a couple seconds that I had left the headlamp’s red light on and quickly turned it off the but the “damage” was already done. It turned out that this actually made the photo much more interesting. You can see some light pollution in the background – I had scouted this shot during the day and did not expect to see any of that, but there it is. Finally, the Milky Way is the orange spot just over McClellan Peak. I used a custom curve to blacken the sky portion of the photo such that the stars were much more visible and boosted the exposure on the non-sky part of the photo to bring out some more detail. This was still a single exposure without any blending, however.

After this I decided I would try the blending thing (doing a 13 second exposure of the sky combined with a 40 second exposure of the ground) but focusing on the Milky Way where it was instead of focusing on Enchantment Pass and the lake. Here’s the result:

Not too shabby. The ripples in the water cause the reflection to be all mushy, not much to do there. And of course, the clouds don’t really help. I was a lot less aggressive with the curves to keep the look more “natural”. You can see how the mountain is really dark right on the edge and there’s a small halo effect that I wasn’t quite able to stamp out completely with the burn tool – this is the blend line between the two exposures. However, I’d say this picture is pretty damn good for a spur-of-the-moment attempt.

Sadly the cloud cover was almost 100% when I came back two hours later with the Milky Way centered in the pass.

Maybe next year.