When the weather went bad at the last minute on our Picket trip, Jim and I scrambled to come up with a Plan B. We decided to head over to Leavenworth, the east side always has better weather right? We would try our luck at getting a walk up permit into The Enchantments. The forest service issue 8 individual walk up permits to the Core Enchantments every day. Since only 7 people showed up, Jim and I scored permits.
We took our time getting out of Leavenworth. Our goal for the days was to hike into The Upper Enchantments and camp. Today was high wind warnings so why hurry.
We had asperations on doing some technical climbing so our packs were extra heavy. We slowly reached Colchuck Lake and took a long break with a beautiful view of Dragontail.
During our climb up to Aasgard Pass, we passed several hikers coming down from The Upper Enchantments. Each talked about how cold and strong the winds were. When we hit Aasgard Pass, we were almost blown over. For some reason, I stopped to take pictures.
We hiked down The Upper Enchantments until we found a camp in a cluster of larch tree.
We quickly setup the tent and dove inside. Anxious to get out of the piercing wind.
In the morning, we discovered our camp had a view of Temple Ridge to the left and McClellan Peak to the right.
We also discovered a trace of new snow and the same cold winds from the day before.
We decided against any technical climbing, who wants to get blown off a mountain. Instead we headed over to Cannon Mountain.
The route took us down along Talisman lake, …
then up over Presik Pass where the winds were blowing so strong that we did not even stop to look around. We quickly headed for a ledge that led us into a protected gully. The upper ridges were so jagged.
Cannon Mountain sits on the edge of a very unusual high plateau called Druid Plateau.
Druid Plateau was incredible flat and marshy. We had to rock hop across it. The added frigid winds made it one of the greatest obstacles of the day.
When we reach the final bouldering move to reach the summit, both Jim and I decided to stop our climb 5 feet from the top. The winds were just to strong to risk the exposed move. Instead we found a sheltered spot in the rocks near the summit and took a break.
We did our hike back to camp in record speed. We both wanted to escape to the protection of our tent.
The next morning, we woke to blue skies. We could finally fully enjoy the beauty of our camp.
After seeing the line of climbers heading over to Presik Peak, we decide to climb McClellan. Climbers were camped in the surrounding areas waiting for a break in the weather so they could do some technical climbing. With everyone on Temple Ridge and Presik Peak, we had McClellan all to ourselves. We could hear whoops and hollers all day long as climbers reach their summits across the basin.
We headed out of camp the same way as the day before. While we were taking a quick break at Rune Lake, a mountain goat appeared and posed for me directly in front of McClellan Peak. We hadn’t seen any wildlife until now. My guess is they were hiding from the winds as well.
The goat then proceeded to lay down on the warm rock.
The climb up McClellan took us across the basin and past several lakes. Sprite Lakelet was so peaceful.
Each lake is in its own basin surrounded by granite walls.
Our route up McClellan was very straight forward. Head up the snow slope until we could traverse across the upper slopes and into the notch on the ridge.
Once we reached the ridge, we headed up ledges.
Soon we got our first up close view of the summit.
Since we had done so little rock work this year, we decided to climb the west ridge.
The ridge was mostly broken slabs and quite fun.
Several pitches could easily be done without ropes but it was really good practice.
McClellan sits on the middle edge of The Enchantments which makes it a fabulous view point.
We took our time getting back to camp. Enjoying our descent.
We decided to take a different route back and drop into Crystal Lakes then climb a snow chute which topped out about 200 yards from our tent.
Tonight, we enjoyed dinner outside watching several critters come out of hiding to enjoy the evening sun. We even had a mountain goat bring her month old kid into camp.
For our final day of climbing, we decided to head for Colchuck via Dragontail. Not the average way anyone leaves The Upper Enchantments but Jim and I are always looking for something different. And this route would avoid decending Aasgard Pass.
We left camp heading up Little Annapurna. Before reaching the summit, we turned west and contoured gentle snow slopes until we reach the col that separated Dragontail from Little Annapurna. It was so striking to look back and see the drastic difference between the two sides of Little Annapurna.
In order to get out of the col, we had to climb a very steep snow chute. It was time to find a spot out of the wind to rope up. The winds were so strong, Jim had to chase down my gloves that got blown off a rock.
Once on the Dragontail side of the ridge, we headed up the climbers path to the summit of Dragontail. We were the only people on the summit with overnight packs. We got more than one strange look.
Our difficulties of the day were not over yet. Jim and I still needed to cross another ridge before reaching Colchuck Col. We did not like the steep snow slope that was going to take us to the col.
In an effort to avoid climbing the steep snow, Jim scrambled the ridge until he found a spot where we could do a short rappel down to the snow chute on the Colchuck side of the ridge. Soon we were at Colchuck Col looking back up at the shear cliffs of this side of Dragontail.
The climb up Colchuck was uneventful and soon we were lounging on the summit. I could have stayed here for hours. The views of Mt Stuart and Arganaut were fabulous.
Not to mention the view of Dragontail.
With the sun getting low in the sky, we reluctantly headed back to Colchuck Col to pick up our big packs and start the long snow descent to Colchuck Lake. At least we didn’t have to descend Aasgard Pass.
We arrived Colchuck Lake completely spent. It had been a very long day. We grabbed the first marginal camp we could find and had dinner on a rock in the lake.
We woke at 5:30 to dark clouds and a threat of rain. We decided to pack up and head out. Lunch in Leavenworth was sounding pretty good.
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