I scored a last-minute overnight permit for the Core Enchantment Zone (!!) so went up for a solo overnight on Tuesday 9/14. The trailhead was surprisingly not too full at 8am, there were tons of empty overnight parking spots. I counted 58 people on the way up to Aasgard, which seems crazy for a weekday but I guess it is the Enchantments...
Nothing remarkable to note about the trail, it's quite easy to follow until the far side of Colchuck Lake, where it's still easy to follow if you pay attention to the cairns. You could probably go up Aasgard a dozen times and never take the same route. There are tons of trails and cairns everywhere, just go up and make sure to go to the right of the cliffs and trees in the middle center of the slope.
I was hoping to climb Dragontail, Witches Tower, and Little Annapurna on Tuesday, so I was excited to get a view of the glacier below Dragontail at the top of the pass. I expected it to be little more than just glacial ice this late in the season, and I was correct. My plan was to go up Little Annapurna, traverse to the snowy col above Isolation Lake, then over to and up Witches Tower, back to the col, up the ridge to Dragontail, and back the same way - however, I knew some weather was going to blow in that evening so I was planning to reasses along the way.
I got to my camp spot near Tranquil lake around 12:00pm, set up by bivy and staked a tarp over it, then headed over to Little Annapurna. As I was walking over to the base, I saw two people descending from the snowy col I had planned to come down after my traverse. Looking up at it from camp, I was worried it would be steep, but it seemed very doable watching them.
It was windy and there were clouds coming in, so I climbed quickly and was at the summit about an hour after I left camp (at 2:05pm). It started drizzling and the wind really picked up, making it hard to walk on the summit of LA. I would highly recommend doing the "scramble" up Little Annapurna if you have the time, it was mostly a walk-up on great, fun rock with a super cool summit.
With the incoming weather (I could see it raining over on Stuart), I decided to just head back to camp and skip Witches Tower and Dragontail. Smart call! At 3:30pm it was raining steadily with big wind gusts - my poor little shelter collapsed a few times before I moved to a more sheltered campsite. I hunkered down for a loud, windy, wet, but thankfully not too cold night.
At least I was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise! Beautiful colors reflecting on the lakes with the larches just starting to turn golden (prime larch viewing will probably be in the next few weeks, I predict). Coming down Aasgard took me about as long as coming up and was much less pleasant, plus it was still very windy until I was about 2/3 of the way down. The rest of the hike out was uneventful, although I probably saw even more people than the day before!
I'll be back to complete my traverse idea and check off Dragontail and Witches Tower!
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