I had planned to hike to Lake Stuart, but discovered that the FS road off of Icicle Creek Road leading to the trailhead is now closed (can't imagine why the guidebooks call this a "creek" - it looked more like a raging river to me; I noticed that the road sign actually says "Icicle River Road"). So I wandered two miles down the road to go to Snow Lakes as an alternative.

The trail is in good shape except for the twenty-six deadfalls I counted on the way down (I counted only those requiring some effort to get around) and some shrubbery overhanging the trail on the first set of switchbacks. There is no snow at all anywhere on the trail.

Due to the time wasted on the aborted Lake Stuart hike, and a little time clearing a few of the deadfalls with a pocket knife saw, I didn't make it quite to the Snow Lakes, but only to Nada Lake. Very nice, but no comparison to the grandeur of Mount Stuart, Argonaut Peak, et al.

    I led my Alpine Larch Spectacular backpack for the Cascadians last week, 10/7 – 11, to the Enchantments. I drove over Tue evening and stayed in Tumwater campground to be at the Leavenworth Ranger Station at 7:30 to try for a permit through the morning lottery. As I had a party of 4 including myself and there are only permits for 5 individuals given out, I could hardly believe my good luck when my name was drawn second after a solo hiker. The plan was to go to Colchuck Lake on Wed, up Aasgard Pass on Thurs, spend a couple of days up amongst the larches & lakes, and then descend Aasgard pass & return to the car on Sun, but just as a precaution I left my truck at the Snow Lake Trailhead. The forecast was for sunny, but cold weather the entire time.
    We arrived at Colchuck Lake in mid-afternoon and set up camp on the north side of the lake with a good view of Colchuck, Dragontail, & Aasgard Pass. The lake was very low due to construction on the dam and we were able to easily explore the east side of the lake. That evening we were treated to a very colorful sunset.
    The next morning it was up & over Aasgard Pass. Knowing that we had all day, we took our time. We left camp about 10, started the actual ascent about 11, and were on top about 2. The last 600’ or so of elevation gain were very icy with a couple of extremely treacherous spots. By the time we were on top I was having second thoughts about descending that way and was glad I had left my truck where I did. After lunch at the pass, we made our way through the upper & middle basins and down the chute to Talisman (Inspiration) Lake. This chute was also very icy and gave us a taste of what going down Aasgard might be like. We set up camp in a very nice spot at the NE corner of Talisman.
    Much to our surprise, we woke the next morning to low clouds, which, after a few hours, did not show any sign of burning off. I was planning on taking a leisurely day hike though the lower Enchantments that day, but wanted sun, so we decided to go up to Prusik Pass instead with a thought of perhaps going down to Shield Lake where none of us had ever been. Once on the pass we found we had cell phone service & one of the party called his wife who got on the internet to check the weather on the NOAA site and informed us that the forecast was for mostly cloudy that day, but sunny on Sat & Sun. There was, however, an arctic air mass moving in & they were going to have near record lows in Yakima Sat night. The low for the Enchantments was going to be something like 16.
    Given the weather for the day, we decided to go down to Shield Lake. We didn’t see the beginning of the easy route down the gully and instead followed a cairned route down a rib to the right of the gully. This was also very icy & treacherous and confirmed our decision from earlier in the day to go out via Snow Lakes on Sun. Once down in the larches, however, the walking was easy & beautiful. But after the exertion of the prior couple of days, this old man was pretty tired, so I just puttered around the south shore of Shield Lake while the others went on to Earle & Mesa Lakes. Then it was back over Prusik Pass and dinner under cold, gray skies.
    Much to our surprise, we woke Sat morning to overcast, which, once again, did not show any sign of clearing. We decided to pack up and, if it did not clear up, we would take our camp down to Snow Lake in the late afternoon to shorten the hike out. If it did clear up, we would make camp lower down in the basin. Matt & Jay decided that they were going to climb Little Annapurna and Bob decided to slowly walk through the lower basin and perhaps head down mid-afternoon if it wasn’t clearing. I spent an hour or so around Talisman, then packed up and, about 11, headed down myself. By the time I got to Sprite Lake, patches of blue were beginning to show. I had lunch by Leprechaun Lake and by 1:30 or so it had become very nice. I was finally getting to see the Enchantments again in all their autumn glory. When Matt & Jay arrived we decided to stay & set up camp above Lake Viviane. Poor Bob was already down at Snow Lake. The rest of the day was spent photographing golden sunlit larches.
    Sat night was supposed to be the cold night, and cold it was. When I looked at my thermometer at 7:15 Sun morning it read 10°. Matt & I spent an hour or so photographing in the morning light, then it was time to have breakfast, pack up, & head out. We were on the trail a little after 10 and down to the dam at Snow Lakes by noon. The hike out from here has a reputation of just being a long, boring walk, but I found it quite pleasant: easy walking, views from time to time, and nice fall color. We were out to the truck by 4.
    Although there were plenty of other campers in the area, it never seemed crowded, except on Sat when all the thru-hikers went by. Then it was almost like a parade. I’ll bet there were almost 200 of them. The weather wasn’t quite what I hoped for or expected, but the larches, lakes, & granite slabs were beautiful nonetheless and this old man was able to get in there, perhaps for the last time.

To accomplish an Enchantment Lakes through-hike, Duane and I left Seattle at 3:30 a.m., dropped off a car at the Snow Lakes trailhead, and were on the trail at Mountaineer Creek by 6:30.

With sunrise at 7:12 and sunset at 6:27, we would have less than 12 hours of daylight. The NOAA forecasts made it clear that temperatures would be below freezing for most of our day. The NOAA forecast (given for 8236 feet) was a high of 28 degrees and a low of 14. Our plan included a summit of Little Annapurna at 8440'.

We used our headlamps for only 20 minutes or so. The day dawned with thin white clouds lifting and blue sky visible in the distance.

When we arrived at Colchuck Lake at 7:45, the clouds were still not totally lifted, but some blue sky was visible. There was small amount of snow around the lake, especially at the south end, making the shoreline particularly beautiful. Many of the larches still had a greenish cast to them, but some were already golden.

The ascent to Aasgard Pass was mostly snow-free at the bottom. The creek was partially frozen, and there were numerous puddles of solid ice. Some rocks had ice on them also, so it required a bit of caution. Patchy snow cover began while we were still below the rock buttress. About halfway up, the sun appeared over Aasgard Pass and illuminated the beautiful surroundings. But it lasted only a brief few seconds, and despite the forecast of "Sunny", we would not see it again.

The last 150 feet of vertical featured some picturesque frozen waterfalls above the trail and treacherous ice on the trail. The only way to negotiate the ice was to locate and step on rocks that did not have black ice on them. Even so, there was one narrow chute that offered no footing. I straddled the chute and used both hands to grip dry boulders above. Even a light dusting of snow over this section will hide the un-iced rocks that offer safe footing, making this an extremely dangerous area.

The ascent took us a full 2 hours. Atop Aasgard Pass, a frigid wind was blowing, as expected. But the cloud layer had settled in over the peaks, hiding the top of Dragontail for the rest of the day. As we walked through the upper basin, we debated whether to summit Little Annapurna. Clouds drifted in and out, sometimes obscuring its summit and even that of Prusik Peak. We decided to start up the peak while monitoring the weather. Because it was already 11:30, we knew that a summit attempt meant finishing our hike by headlamp. We continued up. At the top, we enjoyed excellent views of the Flagpole Needles. But views to the north and east, Brisingamen Lakelets and Snow Lakes, were muted by wispy clouds.

A hiker we encountered heading down from Aasgard Pass had warned us that there was only one other tricky section to negotiate: the chute descending to Inspiration Lake. By careful choice of rocks to step on, we were able to avoid slipping on the ice in that chute. Snow and ice would not be a problem from here on out.

At this point, we tried to pick up the pace, anxious to get down to at least Snow Lake before daylight waned. But the colorful larches were numerous around Perfection Lake. We kept stopping to take more pictures, and drink in the beauty. Together, we would take 375 photos before the day was over.

Upper Snow Lake was quite a spectacle. Because the dam at the outlet had been repaired in September, the lake had been drained to an unprecedented level. I was expecting to see a new dam, but it was the same old dam with fresh patches of concrete, and a new trash rack to hopefully prevent clogging.

We left the dam at 6:22, five minutes before official sunset. There was enough ambient light that we made it through the talus to Nada Lake and beyond before getting out our headlamps again.

The rest of the journey was just a slog. Even though the forecast was for a low of 22 degrees at 2000 feet of elevation, we were comfortable walking a fast pace. For the last two miles, we could see cars driving along Icicle Creek road. We couldn't tell for sure in the darkness, but it appeared that some of them were entering the Snow Lakes trailhead parking lot late at night.

At almost 9:00 p.m., with just a few hundred yards to go, we met a pair of guys hiking up the trail by headlamp. I noticed that their packs were small, but it didn't make sense until a couple minutes later when we met two more hikers, wheeling a rescue gurney. They had gotten a report of an injured climber at Snow Creek Wall, 2 miles in. Snow Creek is between the Wall and the trail, so if the injured climber saw us and shouted out, the sound of the creek must have drowned him out. We never heard or saw anything to alert us.

Update: The Wenatchee World reported on Saturday that the fallen climber was in stable condition after a "technical rescue that required ropes".

Took an unforgettable, 3-night trip to the Enchantments. See my blog post at: www.wta.org/trail-news/signpost/enchanted-indeed

The Mosquitoes were atrocious (the ranger said they were quite a bit worse this year)-- wish I had brought a head net. A few very small snow fields to cross on the trail through the upper Enchantments, maybe 2 in the lower basin. Trekking poles helped but no special equipment needed.

Helicopters were buzzing overhead on our hike in to Snow Lake, ferrying out people and equipment (except for a roll of TP from a portable toilet that blanketed a tree about 50 feet from the ground) from construction of the Nada Lake Dam. They'll be back at work in Sept. on the Snow Lake Dam.