Well, well, well. This hike has been a bucket list item for quite some time. Having tried to obtain a backing permit through the lottery for a few years (and failing), me and a few friends decided just to do it as a day through hike.
We completed this hike on Friday, August 30th, and now on Sunday, September 1st, I’m just recovered enough energy-wise to write a trip report ;) The hike was incredible. I have no idea how people haul full 30+ lb packs up Aasgard. There was a lot more full body hoisting than I anticipated. I realized I have no desire to ever pursue rock climbing. There were multiple times on Aasgard that I thought to myself “I should not be doing this right now.” It’s steep, and I was scared that one misstep or loss of balance, and I’d go tumbling down the whole thing.
But! It does eventually end, and once at the top, the reward of the Core is worth every mental breakdown had on Aasgard. Spent a decent amount of time in the core soaking in the sights. But then I had to pull myself away in order to do the descent from Vivian Lake down to Snow lake before it got dark. Do NOT attempt to do this decline in the dark. The cairns can be hard to spot even in the daylight and the route from one cairn to the next is not always immediately obvious. I can’t imagine trying to figure it out in the dark. They are also steep “huh the cliff” sections you would not want to have to navigate in the dark.
By the time I got to Snow Lake I was in a #Mood due to exhaustion. I took no pictures of Snow Lake because of my mood, and I figured I could just come back later and do a day hike to Snow lake from the Snow Lake trailhead. Having done the additional decline and SLOG from Snow Lake to the Snow Lake Trailhead, I no longer have a desire to hike to snow lake as a day hike haha. Nope. I’ll steal my friends’ pictures of Snow Lake instead and call it good.
All of the other hikers we came across on the trail were WONDERFUL and soooooo helpful in providing us rides back to Colchuck after we had a car key snafu which nixed our original plan and left us without transportation back to Colchuck. The hiking community is truly the best!
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