The Enchantments — Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021

Through hiked the Enchantments on 08-01-2021! It was the most beautiful, grueling, and satisfying experience. This has been a goal for me for a while so I'm really glad to have finished it, and I'd definitely recommend others to go for it as well.

Warning:

There's a wasp nest right on the side of the trail about 2-3 miles away from the Snow Lakes trailhead. It's in a flat-ish forested section, on the left when heading towards the TH. I was just walking on the trail when I felt a sharp pain, and there was the nest right there on the side. Watch out in this area!

Preparation

I'd recommend some prep both physically and logistically to get ready for this hike. I found the Mailbox Peak old trail to be a great hike to do beforehand, and Dirty Harry's Peak was good as well. Logistically, I read a bunch of trip reports (including this excellent one), mapped the route on Gaia GPS, uploaded the route to my GPS device, and made a packing list and a rough timing schedule for each checkpoint.

Packing

My big takeaways from packing for the enchantments: extra socks/shoes are 100% worth it, and a good med kit saves the day.

Socks/Shoes: About 8 miles in, between Tranquil and Inspiration Lakes, there's a small snow field to cross (could be avoided by going around). The area around looked safe and there wasn't a drop or a lot of water under the snow, so I decided to go ahead and cross. I made it most of the way across when my foot went clear through the snow and dunked my boot into the water below... Good thing I packed three extra pairs of socks and a lightweight pair of shoes! I intended to use the extra shoes mainly after wading in lakes to avoid the hassle of drying my feet before putting boots back on, but I ended up wearing these for the rest of the hike. The lighter shoes were actually pretty nice for the rest of the day, and I didn't have to worry about getting them wet anymore since they'd just dry off in less than 10 minutes. As for socks - even if you're not getting your feet wet, extra socks are worth it. Putting on a fresh pair of socks is like getting a new life.

Med kit: Everyone doing this day hike should have at least some basic first aid kit. I was definitely glad to have mine when my friend had a semi-rolled ankle and I got stung by a wasp. Some essentials to definitely bring: ibuprofen, benadryl, compression bandage.

An honorable mention is a water filter - you definitely need one if you're doing this hike. Trekking poles were not as useful as I expected, and I only used them in a few miles at the beginning. Aasgard Pass and a lot of the steep descent are better using hands to hold on to rocks, but there are some areas of the descent that my friend found them useful to take off strain from the ankles.

Difficulty

Of course, Aasgard Pass is the clear winner in terms of trail intensity. It was hard, but I took it kind of slow with plenty of quick breaks and got through it with no issues. Another notable section is around Lake Viviane, the descent gets kind of sketchy, really steep on sloped rocks. This area was also kind of hard to find the proper trail with the cairns, and I used my mapping device to find the way a bunch of times. The final ~6 miles from Snow Lakes to the end are not hard, but it goes on and on. This part is all mental - just zone out and put one foot in front of the other and you'll be done soon enough.

Weather

We had perfect weather - cloudy / partly cloudy, which kept the temperature at 65-75 degrees the whole day. I think Aasgard could've been much harder with a harsh sun overhead. It rained the previous night in the parking lot, but it stopped an hour before we started and didn't rain again all day which was perfect.

Smoke

There was a faint smell of smoke at the trailhead, but once we got on the trail it faded away, so I think it was less present at the higher elevation. This forecast is a good one to check if you're worried about smoke for your hike.

Last notes

I highly recommend having a finish line reward as suggested in another trip report! Being able to eat some good food immediately after finishing felt great, and it was extra motivation to power through the last miles. Finally, have fun and take lots of pictures! It can be easy to slip into a completion mode where you just want to keep going and finish, but try to remember to also take your time and enjoy it - in a day hike you won't be there very long anyway, so do everything you can to make it memorable.

The Numbers

• Distance: 21.1 miles
• Elevation gain: 5000 feet
• Elevation loss: 7000 feet
• Total time: 14 hours (5:30 AM - 7:30 PM)
• Average pace: 40 min/mile  (including breaks)