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Alden Ryno
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Joined: 04 Jun 2019
Posts: 150 | TRs | Pics
Location: Issaquah, WA
Alden Ryno
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PostSun Aug 04, 2019 5:40 pm 
Enchanting Ensemble Trailhead: Stuart/Colchuck Lake. Stats: 28 miles, 13,000' cumulative gain. Summits: Cannon, McClellan, Enchantment, Little Annapurna, Dragontail, Colchuck. The Enchantments, Washington's "darling" area. Pros: Lots of stark stone faces (in the Top 100), sanguine alpine lakes, and gullible goats. Various access points. Cons: People. Far, far too many people. Grabbing the Enchantment Area peaks can be a bit tricky, especially if you don't win an overnight permit in the annual lottery...like me. And don't want to attempt a walk-up permit in normal operating hours at the ranger station...like me. Fortunately, there are ways around the hubbub that don't involve explicitly violating any orders.
Stuart after sunset. I arrived at the trailhead Thursday even a few minutes before 7pm and departed at 7pm. I hiked 1.4 miles (just before the bridge) then made a hard left off trail. I ascended through brush, largely devil's club and other prickly plants, for a few hundred feet to a brush shelf at the base of aassice boulder field at the western base of Cannon Mountain. I continued upwards on boulders to the left (north) of a waterfall seen the entire way up, once out of the brush. The boulders turned to loose dirt and rock. I traversed slightly through brush around 6,000' to get closer to the creek. Then upward again. This continued until 6,200' where the ground flattened and I searched for a place to make camp. Despite much of the area closest to the creek being marshy, I found a patch of sand immediately adjacent to the creek for easy water access. I made camp about a quarter past 9.
Creekside campsite. I awoke around 5:15 and made coffee and had a stale donut I had brought along. Climbing commenced at 6:15 as I made my way back to the boulder field (north of camp). I gained the western ridge of Cannon at 7,600' and just kept going up into the clouds around 8,000'. The route to the summit was largely "pick your fun." Everything seemed to go though smart route finding was beneficial in places. Summit at 8:15.
Views to my back ascending to the ridge.
View of the Druid Plateau from the summit. I had cell service so I spent too much time on my damn phone hoping the clouds would clear... They kinda did. I crossed over the Druid Plateau and by the time I came to the edge the clouds hadoved out and Prusik Peak, The Temple and more came into view.
First signs of clearing...
Only moments later. eek.gif
Northside of Enchantment Peak.
Mmm Mmm Mmm.
Prusik Peak from its pass.
First sight of McClellan and Little Annapurna. I traversed too high and came to the "pass" below Enchantment Peak and toyed with idea of ascending it from that side but it was steep and I didn't have any beta on routes from the north. On to Prusik Pass it was. I had to descend to about 7,100' before ascending up to the 7,500' pass. When I came to the pass, I descended to the trail split by Perfection Lake and stashed my pack out of sight in some trees and took my day pack over to McClellan. I took a more circuitous route up to avoid steep snow traverses. I enjoyed the area above the gully; many of these peaks seem to have larger-than-normal sub-summit plateaus. The final moves up to the summit were more 4th class and I had to search around for a viable option.
Most of the route up McClellan.
Purty. The route was largely retraced back down to my pack. I dropped a bit lower to avoid the downsloping slabs. My pack and I were reunited and I simply clipped my day pack to the outside of my main pack. Then I hiked up the trail to access a gully below Enchantment Peak and followed it practically all the way to it's semi-plateau below the summit block. I stashed my pack for the final 200' and had some Costco cookies up there.
View to Prusik from Enchantment.
Enchantment summit panorama.
Cannon and Druid Plateau.
On the traverse down from Enchantment. Eventually I clamored down and made the long, low-grade descending traverse to the upper Enchantment Lakes; I love the amount of easy traversing done during my time in the Enchantments. I took some time to gather my night's water at the outlet of Isolation Lake. Then ascended the "isthmus" between the upper lakes. I dropped my pack about halfway between Little Annapurna and Witches Tower and went over to Lil'A for my 4th and final summit of the day The route up was extremely simple and had trail to the top. I sat while texting and eating a Reese's Fast Break candy bar...my go-to summit snack as of late. As 7pm hit I made my way off to my pack.
I ascended the right side of the large bulge.
Part of Lil'A summit plateau.
More of it. For the next day, I had planned to ascend to the flat area on the backside of Dragontail to then traverse to Dragontail and subsequently to Colchuck but the access gully still had a lot of snow and I didn't want to ascend steep snow without an axe nor traction. I figured I'd wake up and head out via Aasgard Pass the next morning.
Morning on the way.
ooohhh aaahhh I made camp that night just outside of the permit zones and sheltered myself by a rock with a tremendous view over the basin with Prusik Peak in the center. Sleep overcame me before sunset and I woke up briefly at 9:30 to darkness. I could see the lights of Cashmere and Wenatchee but the stars still shone brightly in the new moon sky. Morning came with slight hues on the horizon and soon bright, distinct Cora filled the sky as the sun rose directly over the Prusik Massif. I began walking at 6:15 over the that aforementioned gully to scope it out better and perhaps go up Witches Tower. As I got closer to the gully two, then three, snowless routes appeared.
Routes looking better as I get closer. I picked one and topped out to a grand view of the Teanaways and Rainier. I crossed the backside of Dragontail roughly ong the 8,500' contour to the col of the standard route. The travel was easy and provided a wonderful south facing view.
Views like this make constant progress difficult.
Expansive field and views. Rainier on right. I dropped my pack and day pack and shot up to the Dragontail summit just to re-tag it. I was able to look down at a portion of the Colchuck Glacier and decided that it'd be best to not descend it like I had originally planned. As such I would have to descend and reascend the 700'+ to the col just beneath Pandora's Box to and from Colchuck. Gotta earn that 13,000' of gain! I came back to my pack and set up my day pack with some snacks and an extra jacket. I brought a liter of agua too.
Funky feature near Colchuck summit.
Colchuck summit fin.
Now only Sherpa remains for me in the Stuart Range. I made quick travel and soon tagged the 8,705' summit of Colchuck; my 50th Bulger! Though technically I will need to go back to Big Snagtooth when that final Boulder/block isn't ice slathered. This makes 33 of the buggers since the beginning of May. The route back to my pack was uneventful yet beautiful and the final bits of elevation gain weren't too bad.
How many can you count in this frame alone?
Back at the big Boi. Out of water, I descended down to Aasgard Pass where I counted 30+ people. Christ, that's exactly why I don't like these areas. I must've passed more than 50 people just descending to the lake and passed another 30 or 40 on my way back to the trailhead. I was back at my car at 2:30 pm where I was flagged down by Brian Mitchell of Hinterland Photography (@hinterland_photography) whose pictures I absolutely love! It was great to meet him in person. He saw my Pikachu on my pack, a dead giveaway. ° I passed a younger Ranger near the top of Aasgard Pass who asked to see my day-use pass. I told her plainly that I didn't have one. I didn't have one; there were none in the box when I left the trailhead. Nearing the top of the pass, I imagine she was tired and didn't care much to give me a citation though I'd gladly pay one. I was in the wrong after all. She did look at my pack attempting to elucidate if I had been in fact camping. She asked about my collapsible water bottle thinking it was a later, things like that. Thankfully a 25 or 30 pound pack for 3-4 days is thin and doesn't give much away. biggrin.gif I'm attempting to make a donation directly to the Wenatchee-Okanogan National Forest in leiu as I believe they need and should have more funds, and I spend so much time in their districts. ° In the interest of too much information... I suddenly had to poop about 2 miles from the trailhead. Being the trail was so absurdly busy, I wasn't able to find a spot to relieve myself so I had to waddle back the last two miles clenching my butt not entirely successfully causing a preposterous degree of chafe when all had been PERFECT until that time... ° A great trip to a beautiful place. I would LOVE to spend more time past Prusik Pass and on the shelf on the backside of Dragontail. Damn they're nice!

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neek
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neek
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PostSun Aug 04, 2019 6:15 pm 
ooh aah indeed! Missed you on Cannon and Enchantment by just a few days. The crowds from the trailhead to the top of Aasgard were indeed insane, but I figure as a contributor to the mess I can't complain!

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rbuzby
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rbuzby
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PostMon Aug 05, 2019 6:15 am 
Looks like your camp up by Annapurna was in the permit zone. That would be have been nice if they left all that flat space out of the permit area, but they didn't.

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Alden Ryno
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Joined: 04 Jun 2019
Posts: 150 | TRs | Pics
Location: Issaquah, WA
Alden Ryno
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PostMon Aug 05, 2019 10:01 am 
rbuzby wrote:
Looks like your camp up by Annapurna was in the permit zone.
Perhaps, I may be able to maintain plausible deniability by not disclosing exactly where I bivy'd. biggrin.gif

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NorthwestWanderer
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PostMon Aug 05, 2019 10:42 am 
Awesome pics. The one with all the peeps gave me anxiety though lol The crowds and regulations of that place guarantees I'll never visit it so I'll live vicariously through people like you to see it up.gif

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