My partner (NDSB) and I went up Aasgard with microspikes, an ice axe and a trekking pole fitted with a snow basket during this past sunny Saturday afternoon. The snow was deep and slushy due to the warmer air temperature and direct sunlight, but was completely navigable.
After trekking around the basin, which had a beautiful layer of nearly untouched snow (with a crust that made it quite easy to walk on), the descent down Aasgard was right at the edge of terrifying but again, navigable.
The snow on Saturday was too soft, slushy and slippery for crampons or snowshoes, so microspikes were perfect. I heartily endorse bringing an ice axe up since the bottom third of Aasgard felt safe to glissade, and getting purchase with my axe on the way up was a huge help in the trickier/larger steps that I had to take.
I tip my hat to those glissading the whole thing. The grade, as well as run out involving landing in boulder fields, made it feel unsafe to me to slide down until I was towards the bottom third of the pass, but I also had my risk assessment seriously adjusted last fall with a gnarly deck while climbing in Leavenworth, so maybe the version of me that existed before that would have glissaded the whole thing.
I did see what I hope was a path from a human-sized falling rock across the right side (when facing up from the bottom) of the pass, and my partner and I definitely sat staring at it during a pause for gear adjustment, hoping that someone had not glissaded down the side that goes over the massive stream/waterfall. It did not feel great to see one abandoned snowshoe on the boulder field below the exposed portion of the waterfall. We kept telling ourselves that it had probably just fallen off of someone's pack, but seeing what looked like a glissade chute on that side of the pass definitely made me feel compelled to listen/inspect/observe for anyone that might need help.
Heard and saw multiple boulder and rockfalls on both the left and right side of Aasgard on the way up, and had a group of three climbers coming down (hopefully unknowingly) knocking rocks loose above us, making the middle of the ascent a little more stressful than it should have been. We did not actively see any avalanches during our three days out there, but heard a few sounds walking out Sunday night during the rain that could have been big sections of snow sliding down. We definitely heard a good amount of rockfall on our hike out from Colchuck Lake Sunday night, as the rain was melting the snow and freeing up rocks held in place by the snow pretty quickly.
This was the most fun I have had going up a snowy thing in a second (the winter route on Mt Ellinor back in April was another), and I'm so excited to have secured a permit and been able to spend the weekend at Colchuck Lake! Thanks for having me, Enchantments Basin! You are beautiful! Also, a big shout out to the one goat we encountered for being a skittish fellow, and not being one of the twelve aggressive buds my partner had interacted with last summer while camping near Lake Vivian. I know I'm in your home, out of my element, but I appreciated such a mellow wildlife encounter!
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