[North Cascades]

Jordan and I decided to tackle Asgaard Pass last thursday. We hit the road at 4am and pulled into the parking lot at 6:50, setting out on the trail 10 minutes later. The trail starts out easy, in open pine forest with occasional logs and branches on the ground showing scorch marks from previous forest fires. The trail is in no hurry to go up at first, gaining, then losing, then gaining elevation again. After passing the second rustic bridge, the climb up to Colchuck Lake begins. There are lots of roots and rocks on this route, just as I had heard. The roots and rocks get worse the closer to the lake you get. At the lake, the occasional sound of laughter could be heard as groups of overnight campers began to wake up. The way around the side of the lake to the base of the pass was not difficult, but took longer and was more tedious than I expected. The beginning of the path up Asgaard goes up and then across a stream where I pumped water for the climb. The entire route up the pass looked exposed so I expected to be sweating buckets once the sun came up over the ridge. Shortly after the stream we saw our first mountain goat of the day. Asgaard pass deserves it's nasty reputation. The whole way up, the rocks did their best impression of ball bearings, putting additional strain on legs and feet that were already straining with the elevation gain. For the first half of the climb, another party followed behind us, slowly getting further behind. Except for the little girl (8-10yrs?) with no pack. We were envious of the way she could effortlessly bounce up the gravelly boulders while us adults slipped and cursed our plodding way up. There were a few groups coming down the pass that day too. Actually, it was surprising how many people were tackling the pass that day, given it's nasty reputation. The mosquitoes started to get bad where the path comes around to the east of the rock island, so I finally had to pull out the deet. Just after the top, the path curves around a big boulder. This is where we saw our second goat, standing a couple of feet off the trail licking the rocks, completely unconcerned with our presence. A small group passed us at this point. They had no trouble with the goat either. They clacked their trekking poles together, it ran off a few feet, they passed, and the goat went right back to licking the rocks next to the path. A couple of minutes later we say another goat. Not too long afterwards, we climbed up some rocks just north of Isolation/Brynhild Lake and ate lunch. Our lunch spot gave us excellent views of the upper enchantments. Freya/Tranquil, Reginleaf, and Brynhild/Isolation Lakes were all in view, as well as Dragontail, Little Annapurna, and McClelland peaks. After lunch, I answered a call of nature on some rocks about 50 feet away. Before too long, a goat came to investigate. Not sure if this was the last goat we had seen, or a new one. It cautiously walked towards us from it's "salt lick" on a rock wall about 5 feet from us and just about as tall. It walked as close as it could get on the wall then stopped and looked around, ignoring us. It was as if it just wanted to get it's photo shoot! Eventually it slowly walked back to where it had started 50 feet away. When it was at it's closest I noticed that my pack was between us and was opened like a pinata. If it wanted to eat my food (or pack) there would have been nothing I could do about it. So I packed everything up as soon as the goat moved a safe distance away. Good thing. A few minutes later the mountain goat came back, but this time it's demeanor had changed. It was not acting cautious and it was looking us right in the eyes, which it had not done before. When it was about 10-12 feet away I grabbed my pack, which was still between me and the rock wall. The goat froze and half cocked it's head to the side. I zipped up the last pockets when the goat suddenly appeared in my peripheral vision about 6 feet away. Dang those things can move quiet! I side scuttled away, dragging my pack. The goat stood still with it's head cocked and lowered, watching me with one eye in that "I'm ready to getcha" stance. I put my pack on and we backed off. The goat immediately hopped down to where we had been. It sniffed around a bit and then stared at the lake, pointedly ignoring us. The point was taken. Other than trespassing on it's favorite lookout spot, we didn't matter! Since we already had to move anyways, we decided to start back down the pass. I felt stiff at the top of the pass, knees were screaming halfway down, and by the time we got down to the lake, I was done. I didn't want to hike anymore. Not that there was any choice. We needed to get back to the parking lot before sunset, so after resting, drinking water and eating a powerbar, we staggered forward again. On the west side of Colchuck Lake I had an embarrassing moment. I ripped off a loud fart, took a couple steps around a corner, and only then noticed the 2 guys waiting for us to pass. Oops. My face was red and I forgot about my swollen knees for a few minutes (lol). The rest of the way down was uneventful. We passed a couple of groups headed down and several that were headed up to the lake. The last couple of miles seemed to take forever, as always. Finally sitting down in the truck was awesome! My knees were swollen and sore for days afterwards, but it was well worth it.

Waterfall near Asgaard Pass

Dragontail Peak & Asgaard Pass

Large Tarn near Colchuck Lake

Brynhild/Isolation Lake, Reginleaf Lake & Little Annapurna in the Upper Enchantments, McClellan Peak in the background.

Brynhild/Isolation Lake, Reginleaf Lake & Little Annapurna in the Upper Enchantments, McClellan Peak in the background.

Brynhilde/Isolation Lake & Little Annapurna in the Upper Enchantments.

Brynhilde/Isolation Lake in the Upper Enchantments, McClellan Peak in the background.

View from Asgaard Pass, Colchuck Lake down below.

Nason Ridge? from Colchuck Lake trail.

Asgaard pass from Ryan Ledgerwood on Vimeo.

[North Cascades]

Hopefully I can post a few more pics later. I've been having computer trouble lately. It took me 5 tries to post that tr without crashing, so I just posted the panos and vid with the tr hoping I was fast enough to avoid the trouble on my end.

[Studebaker Hoch]

I did the same hike (except I hiked to the Lakelets before turning around) about a month ago. First time to the upper area was epic and there seems to always be a ton of people on Aasgard. I passed about 5 groups on my way up and a ton more on the way down. Also to get back I took a super secret route following the stream out of Colchuck Lake which put me back at the trail head an hour sooner than expected (though I do not recommend that route as it is steep (like vertical drops in places) and there are many thorn bushes)

[LizzyRN]

Great photos!

[Jordan]

Great report Ryan. 8 days and counting.

[North Cascades]

a few more pics

Dar!

climbers heading up Dragontail Peak East Ridge route

climbers @ bottom right

A Face!

[Treehugger5]

Great pics and nice report. After you ripped one, did you loudly exclaim "JORDAN GOD". I am starting to get jealous of the west side hiking.

[North Cascades]

Ha ha ha! Nice one treehugger! I did not blame Jordan, but maybe I should have!