Scott and I had been talking for a while about making a trip up Colchuck Peak while there was still adequate snow cover on the Colchuck Glacier route. Over dinner Monday night we decided that the coming Saturday would be good. Unfortunately, by Thursday night the weather forecast called for 1 to 2 feet of snow in the area Friday through Saturday morning so Friday morning we decided to call the trip off.
I got home from work Friday afternoon and checked the weather forecast again. Strangely enough, the forecast had improved enough to prompt me to call Scott, and the trip was back on. We packed up and headed to Leavenworth that evening.
The trip started out on an auspicious note when we arrived in Leavenworth and stopped at Uli's for a beer. The bartender told us that she had made last call 10 minutes earlier Perhaps Scott's youthful good looks convinced her to allow us one beer each
We had our beers and {Yada, yada, yada...}
We arrived at the trailhead shortly before 7:00 am to find only a few cars in the lot. A couple parties of two were just starting out.
Getting ready
We started up the trail under mostly cloudy skies. Mountaineer Creek was foaming, so we chose the footbridge rather than crossing on rocks.
We arrived at the Colchuck Lake to find it mostly melted out. Aasgard Pass came into view first, then we laid eyes on our route to Colchuck Col. We saw a group of 5 partway up the route, and a two parties of 2 just in front of us. The route looked good from the lake, but thick clouds were moving in from the north.
Aasgard Pass
Bottom of our route
We exchanged trekking poles for ice axes, and started up the route. We passed one party of 2 as they were changing out gear. Partway up the first slope we passed the other party of 2 as they were descending. They said they had run out of gas and decided to call it a day. With today's high prices, I understand why they didn't purchase extra gas beforehand. The clouds from the north were getting closer and we thought that we might be joining them on the descent sooner rather than later.
We made it to a flatter spot, and decided to put the crampons on. The next section was actually a little softer than down below, and snow started balling up. As we were contemplating removing them, we hit some firmer snow and decided to leave them on.
Route from the first bench
Mt. Cashmere and Colchuck Lake
As we slowly made our ascent up the glacier, the cloud cover seemed to be decreasing as the wind speed increased. Undaunted by the occasional gust, we continued upward. We encountered 2 of the party of 5 descending. They had turned around partway to the summit from the col. They said the other 3 were still going for the top. We eventually reached the col, and were afforded limited views of the Teanaway area.
Movin' on up
Colchuck Lake
One going up, one coming down
Teanaway views
We found a nice break spot that was sheltered from the wind and discussed what to do next. We could see occasional patches of blue sky, but the wind was turning the peak from Colchuck to Coldchuck. As we were eating some food, the other 3 from the party of 5 arrived at our location. They told us there were some areas of soft snow, alternating with areas of firmer snow and icy rock. Sounded fun We decided to continue up.
Scott
Scott starts up the last few hundred feet
Getting closer?
Past the last steep part!
We were partially sheltered from the wind, and the sky high above us was blue, but all around us was still cloudy. Suddenly the clouds cleared enough and we saw the summit.
The top is in sight!
Scott navigating the last bit
We arrived at the flat spot just below the top, and ditched our packs for the last 15 feet to the top. Once on top we signed the summit register, stating that we "Couldn't see sh##". Almost as soon as the pen left the paper, we could see sh## Not as much as we might have liked, but it was acceptable. Stuart and Sherpa were obscured by clouds, and Rainier was nowhere to be found (I assume it's still there? ), but much of the Teanaway was visible, along with Dragontail and Argonaut, among others.
Scott almost to the highest point
Another summit for Soapy
Towards the upper Enchantments
Almost Stuart
Navaho
Earl
Dragontail
We descended the 15 long feet to our packs, and ate lunch somewhat sheltered from the wind. The 2 women that we passed at the lake arrived at the top. They had some of those nice newer style (to us at least) boots. Maybe I should do this sort of trip more often to justify another footwear purchase Men's version, of course
After a few minutes more on top, Scott and I decided to head back. As we were leaving, the views improved even more.
Teanaway
Argonaut
A few seconds later I heard someone whistle at me. At first I was flattered, then reality sunk in as I realized it was this guy (or gal):
Summit marmot
We followed our slightly southern route variation back to the col. Strong winds almost knocked us off our feet. Luckily the winds weren't nearly as bad a hundred feet lower. Then the glissading began. We made it down to the lake significantly faster than our ascent time. The only down side was that the weather had improved dramatically since the morning. Maybe we should have lingered on top a little longer.
Slip slidin' away
Colchuck Lake
At the lake we took off our gaiters and extra layers of now unnecessary clothing. It was t-shirt weather for a change!
Making our way around the lake we encountered many people setting up or searching for camps. It was the last full weekend before permits are required. I even ran into someone Dani used to work with at REI. Then we met a quiet bearded fellow.
He let us pass, and we continued our descent. We enjoyed some last views before getting to the business of getting back to the car.
Last views
We made a call to Dani and arranged a dinner meeting at Canyon's. Decent food, but the Big beer was the main motivation. Sleep came quickly
Apparently the trip is ~14 miles with ~5,400 feet of gain.
EDIT: Goat video added
Sounds like you ran into our advance party of step kickers (Laurie and Heather), but you somehow missed running into our party of 6. How could this happen??!!
Laurie! That was one of the two on the summit with us! Her camera batteries were dead unfortunately. Either that or I am incompetent with other people's cameras
Was this your pole stash?
Poles without people?
You may have been the group of 6 we saw glissading down as we were leaving the lake (in one of my photos). We took a slight variation south off the summit. Scott didn't like being too close to the ridge. I did see some people ascending as we were descending, but we went behind a big rock before I could count how many. I have a hard time counting above two anyway.
Yes, that was us glissading in your pic.
Thanks for not steeling our poles!
There are some that may think it is a little weird that you take pictures of other people's poles.
Tom, as dicey said, I don't know how we didn't run into you!?
So you were the two mysterious people that were below us in the plateau-ish area when we were running along the ridge...we were wondering what you were doing down there, off the main travel route...
Thanks for not stealing our poles.
That was us. We were trying to avoid any direct contact with hooligans...I mean we were trying to avoid slick rocks on our descent.
As for the poles, next time put a 'Donut Steel' sign on them. I only took a photo of them as there were so many of them. I was scared.
Man, Colchuck was a busy one this weekend!
Our group of 6 will have our trip report up sooner or later - we only have 20,000 photos each to edit beforehand (well, except Dicey who could only muster up 5 or so - she was sick of us techno-shutterbugs endlessly gabbing on about flash cards and video capacity. ) They're duplicates of one another, mind you, as we were shoulder to shoulder at every photogenic spot fighting about who had ownership rights over the current panorama in process.
Once we reached the boulders after descending, there was a woman who was REALLY eyeing our poles as she was heading out. She was either confused or had dollar $igns in her eyes too. Maybe burrying them or leaving them up on the first shelf would be a good way to go next time. I like the "Donut Steel" sign idea though.
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