[awilsondc]

Up until this year, I had never really done a hike in larch country during peak season. The last weekend in September I was able to do a day hike up Mount Fernow and the larches were nearly peak. I gotta say, it was pretty cool and left me wanting more! I had heard that the Enchantments were prime larch country and I made plans to head up the next Thursday, but life got in the way and I had to delay it a week. To make matters worse there was a group of several photographers that I follow on social media who were up there during the time I originally wanted to go and seeing all their photos made me extra jealous of what I missed out on, and stoked to get up there at the same time. I was really hoping conditions would be good. I knew there was recent snow up there, but wasn't quite sure how much to expect. The forecast looked like it would be sunny with nearly cloudless skies around sunrise. The sunrise forecast, however, was mediocre and I nearly changed my plans to another trip but at the last minute I decided to go for it. I really wanted to see an Enchantments sunrise and cruise around the area in peak larch season. With no overnight permit, the only way to see the sunrise in the Enchantments is to start super early. I left after work Wednesday night and headed up to the Lake Stuart Trailhead. I was planning on a no sleep mission, but after arriving at 11:00pm and thinking about my time frame I decided I could snuggle up in the back of my Subaru for 90 minutes of rest before starting. I woke up at 12:30am felling surprisingly... not horrible. By 1am I was on the trail. I was expecting lows in the mid 20s so I wore long underwear, which always comes with the risk of overheating for me unless it's super cold. Sure enough after about 20 minutes I was starting to get a little warm so I slowed my pace a bit to avoid overheating since I had plenty of time to spare. I took a quite leisurely 1:50 to reach Colchuck Lake. It was a calm night without the slightest breeze, and with a nearly new moon and cloudless skies the stars were out in force. It was truly a beauty to behold! I made my way around the lake to where the boulders start. This is where things got interesting. After my first few steps on the boulders I knew I was in for it. They were slippery. Like dew frozen over, or frost slightly melted into an icy crust, everything was slick, icy, and extremely slippery. Footing was bad. Normally I thrive in boulder fields. I feel right at home jumping from boulder to boulder, depending on the bite of my shoe on a rocky spine, or the smear of rubber on a slanted rocky surface. All of these normally automatic foot placements were now extremely tenuous and not trust worthy at all. It really slowed me down, but I managed. After the big boulders I kinda lost the trail. Route finding is kinda tough when you can only see a couple dozen feet in front of you. I decided to just head up. It's kinda a myriad of trails up to the pass anyway, but my tendency to rise more than I traverse eventually lead me to the waterfall area that is such a hazard in spring. Everything was still slippery as ****. I could have done a couple class 3/4 moves to get on top of the waterfall, but in these conditions it wasn't worth the risk. I had to downclimb ~50 feet and made a hard traverse through light brush until I found an obvious trail. Things improved dramatically here. Normally this trail is loose dirt, but today it was frozen solid and the footing was great. Snow started about 6500 feet, but was only 1/2" or so and the footing was fine. A bit before 6am I arrived at the top of Aasgard Pass. It was cold up there. It felt like an instant 10 degree drop in temperature and I quickly put on my down puffy and was grateful I went with the long underwear. Footsteps from previous hikers made the trail easy to follow, and the sky was just barely light enough to see Dragontail Peak and the faint glow of dawn on the horizon. I made my way past Isolation Lake and began to look for some interesting blue hour compositions. I set up my tripod and took a few photos that weren't too great and continued on. As I went further, and the skies got lighter it was clear that the larch were prime! I was pretty stoked. I was aiming for a view point of Perfection Lake, but found myself drifting towards Crystal Lake instead. I just went with the flow. I took a few more photos and then I saw what looked like an awesome larch grove on the other side of Crystal Lake. It was quite a ways away and the dawn color was fading fast so I took off on a fast jog with my tripod under my arm, camera still attached. ****ing slick rocks... One got me and before I could react I was going down. I managed to ditch my trekking poles and gently lay my triopd down as I fell to avoid bodily harm. When I checked my camera however, the entire front glass of my L16 was shattered. My camera was ruined. Several expletives were uttered. Turns out, it's kinda like a cell phone screen and should be fixable to the tune of $200, but I was stuck using my cell phone the rest of trip. At least I still had a camera, because the scenery just kept getting better! As I made my way down to the west bank of Crystal Lake, the golden hour light and alpenglow on Prusik Peak was delightful! From Crystal Lake I went up towards Perfection Lake admiring the views along the way. With the early morning light, the larch were really impressive. Parts of the trip were like walking through a golden forest. Unreal! I loved it! Perfection Lake was awesome and I decided to check out Gnome Tarn since I had never been there. I suspected it would be frozen over, but though it would be worth seeing anyway. Initially I tried to ascend a knoll due east of Perfection Lake to gain the ridgeline, but got cliffed out and with the ice crusted rock no way was I doing any scrambling. I had already fallen a few times, a couple of them quite painful. This was some of the worst footing I've had on any hike I've ever done in terms of footing giving out when you don't expect it because of the thin ice lay everywhere. This time I descended a couple hundred feet to the outlet of Crystal Lake, and made my way up to Gnome Tarn from there which was indeed frosted over but still pretty cool anyway. I saw my first people of the day on the north shores of Perfection Lake after 9 hours alone in paradise. For once I am grateful for the permit system. I passed dozens and dozens of people on the way out, but by afternoon the ice layer over everything had finally melted thank goodness. The way out was pretty uneventful, just... long. 13 1/2 hours car to car with copious photo taking, lounging, and taking in the views. Zero peaks climbed. Here are the photos, most of which are cell phone shots also edited on my phone: Blue Hour:

Blue hour

The Temple

Fractured. After I dropped my camera, this photo appeared in my gallery.

Golden Hour:

The Temple from above Crystal Lake

Crystal Lake Pano

Larch window

Accidental photo. I thought, hey that looks cool!

Crystal Lake

Crystal Lake environs

Perfection Lake pano

South Perfection Lake

Perfection reflection

Little Annapurna

Daylight:

Crystal Lake outlet

Window

Enchantments 10-11-18

Prusik Peak and Gnome Tarn

Gnome Tarn pano

Prusik from near Gnome Tarn

Enchantments 10-11-18

Boulders and Larch

Perfection Lake pano

McClellan

Perfection Lake and Prusik Peak

Inspiration Lake trail

Dragontail and hikers

Looking down on Colchuck

Aasgard

[Ski]

yesssssss...!

[Brushwork]

Really beautiful pictures and compositions. !!!!!!!

[Bernardo]

Nice report. Too bad about the camera.

[Brushbuffalo]

!!!!!! Your cell phone takes better pictures than most $$$ cameras from just a few years ago. Part of that is your skill and of course Larch Heaven! I think the image from the broken camera looks like an impressionistic oil painting. Cool. Slippery .....it has been claimed that the most frequent and deadliest winter driving hazard in Western Washington is freezing fog and dew..." black ice"....I bet your feet can relate!

[Bootpathguy]

[grannyhiker]

Sorry about your camera, but the photos from your phone look just fine! Wow! This time of year, it's gonna freeze every night at that altitude, and microspikes might be a good idea (idea for those following you). I'm glad that, unlike your camera, you weren't injured!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Great pictures. I haven't been up there for a couple years. Enchantments never disappoint.

[day_hike_mike]

Wow! Awesome shots!

[Matt]

Beautiful photos. Thank you. However, I can't figure out how a cell phone managed such good color balance and dynamic range, especially in the very early morning shots.

[awilsondc]

Thanks for the compliments all! In regards to traction, I had microspikes with me but never considered putting them on. It was mostly bare ground up there, only... the rocks were covered with black ice. The snow actually had good traction and was more predictable. Very weird conditions that day, that's for sure!

[ozzy]

Beautiful pics as usual man! Impressive push to get up there before the sun came up, too damn cold for me! On a sidenote I read your TR on sunday and immedaitely called in sick for monday, lol. Cheers!

[fyodorova]

That view over Crystal Lake and the Temple is my favorite in the Enchantments. Your golden hour captures of this scene are gorgeous. This time last year I made it my mission to find Gnome Tarn to see the view with golden larch. It was frosted over too, but it's still beautiful and holds a reflection in the ice, as you discovered. Too bad about your camera, but good thing you have a decent cell phone camera and and the skill to use it.

[awilsondc]