[BarePaw]

Saturday we hiked up over Aasguard Pass to the first couple of lakes in the Upper Enchantments Basin. Round trip was about 13 miles with roughly 4600' elevation gain. The climb to Aasguard Pass from Colchuck Lake is the hardest part with about 2200' gained in a little over a mile. It was a tough hike, but worth it for the view. As we came back down the storm started to move in. As we crossed back over Aasguard, cloud fingers were moving in between the peaks and snow began to fall softly. Looking down on Colchuck lake as the snow fell was beautiful.

Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

Aasguard Pass from Colchuck Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

A small tarn in the upper Enchantments Basin, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

One of the peaks of the Stuart Range as viewed from the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

Stuart Range, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington

[Coasty]

Nice pictures, Would you recommend ice axe or crampons for the upper parts of the enchantments? Not necessarily looking at climbing anything maybe just going from the colchuck trailhead to the snow lakes trailhead. Jason

[Starjumper7]

There's usually water running over this part which is on the way down to Snow lake, so if it's frozen you will need crampons, rope, a helicopter and a lot of praying. I aint never going up there if it's icy and if I get stuck up there when it's covered in ice I'll just wait till next summer. Sometimes I exagerate, a little.

Borrowed from Spotly's website/trip report. There are a couple of other areas of sloping slickrock.

[Coasty]

Gotcha thanks for the beta.... that was one of the areas I am concerned with. Jason

[cartman]

Coasty, once the snow melts out you don't need ax or crampons to hike thru any part of the trails for a through-hike. Of course, with all the new snow in the forecast coming down to Snow Lakes will be treacherous if wet; lots of down-sloping slabs, some with exposure. Beginning of August '05 we were able to scramble Cannon, Enchantment, Little A and McClellan without encountering any snow. Only needed them for the remnant glacier on Dragontail. In fact, I did the entire trip in sneakers--gregor even did Enchantment Pk in tevas! This was the trip which made me a convert to swapping sneakers for boots for many trips since.

[Coasty]

Cartman, Thanks, yeah the weather is going to change a lot here soon.. Thinking about going up there once the permit season is over. Just want to have the right stuff when I head up. Jason

[BarePaw]

We didn't encounter any snow/ice that we couldn't avoid. We didn't have an ice axe or crampons. It started to snow as we were leaving, though, and the weather report had snow for the rest of the week. I'm sure the conditions have changed considerably these last couple of days.

[Mark Griffith]

Wow the larches like they are in full glory. I am heading up there this Thursday night. It'll be interesting to see how much snow is there.

[fettster]

[Mark Griffith]