The Enchantments, Colchuck Lake & Snow Lakes — Saturday, Jul. 13, 2024

I had a looong report written out, but then my computer froze and I lost and I am definitely not typing it all out again. So, here's the shorter version. Had Core permits from 7/9-13.

Left the Stuart/Colchuck lot at 2p on Tuesday, 7/9, temperature was a miserable 94 degrees. Spent the first night about halfway around Colchuck, close to Little Colchuck. Bugs were bad, but not completely miserable. Headed out just before 7am, took about an hour to get to the base of Aasgard with a 10min stop to fill up on water. Reached the top at 12:30p and had plenty of small breaks going up. Handful of goats with babies, lots of flowers, and one small snowfield to cross, but you can easily go around it if you want.

Upper Core still had quite a bit of snow, and most of the camping areas looked either still snow covered, or were melting and wet. Snow crossings here were soft and mushy, and will get worse as the heat continues. Some of the melting areas looked about 6' deep, so make sure to probe before stepping, especially the ones closer to the raging water. Mosquitoes became absolutely insane in the lower core, and remained that way the rest of the trip. Bring face nets and 100% Deet unless you want to be eaten alive.

The last snow crossing is the steep section going down to Inspiration Lake. There's a glissade chute that looked sketchy, so we took the plunge step path which was super soft - it'll definitely get worse soon. We camped at Sprite Lake (our intended destination since we had a hammock sleeper and needed the trees). Found our first group of campers there (everyone was gone by the next morning), and we were able to find a spot easily. There are a lot of sites above the toilet if you don't find one closer down, but they have no trees, and are further from the water. 

Day 3, 2 of us stayed at the lake, and the other 2 went to Prusik Pass (I had been up there before and didn't want to do any walking, lol. But the route is clear and views are beautiful). Spent a lot of the day sitting on a big rock by the lake reading a book, and only saw about 4 small thru hiker groups come through - there was no one else around (I expected it to be incredibly busy, so this was a nice surprise). There are 4 goats around Sprite Lake, 2 juveniles and 2 adults, all with no concept of personal space and acted more like the family pets than wild animals. There are also great views of Prusik Peak and McClellan Peak with the lake below it from the top of the rocks here. 

Side note: We did have a plan to spend one of the days doing Little Annapurna, but none of us wanted to go back up through the snow crossings to get to the trail. If you have Core Zone permits and wanted to do it, I'd suggest camping in the upper core and not going lower until you're done. 

Day 4 we left our camp just before 8am. There is a water crossing at Leprechaun Lake that I don't think is possible to get across with dry feet. We all got wet, and changed our socks when we got to Viviane. After a 10min break there, we headed down, and somehow ended up on the Snow Creek drainage route (which is not the main trail), but it cut off a big section of the slab descent, and made it much faster. Got to the first campsite at Upper Snow Lake at 11:10am, and stopped in the middle of the lake around 11:30a for lunch. Bugs were miserable, so we decided we'd rather just hike out than spend a whole day and night swatting at bugs. The dam is dry and the water level is very low for this time of year (YIKES). I've never done the hike out at this time of year (always later when it's not so hot or the sun is so high), and let me tell you I'd rather go up Aasgard 100x than do this descent in the dead of summer heat ever again. I had 4 liters of water leaving Nada Lake, and was completely out a handful of switchbacks before the end. The "breeze" was like pointing a blow dryer at your face - it was not refreshing. Stopping for a break felt like you were being roasted alive, and it was miserable. Take way more water than you think you need, especially if you're heading up that way - the route up is pretty much exposed all day long.