March 18, 2007, Enchantments

The road up to the Colchuck Lake/Stuart Lake trailhead is still gated at the valley floor. Fortunately, the road up is still 90% covered with snow so we were able to skin most of the way. I'd give it a few more weeks before the road is totally melted out and even then, there was some minor washouts that will need to be repaired. The trail from the summer trailhead is well packed and easy to follow. The bridge crossing on the way up was extremely sketchy and involved balancing on a small path of snow stacked up three feet above the guardrail. However, on our way back, some kind soul dug the entire thing out (it was just a matter of time before someone got killed trying to cross that thing).

A view of north face of Stuart on the way up:


We crossed over Colchuck Lake without incident but it appears to be melting out fast. I've never been up in this area in Winter but others were saying that there is less snow now than there was in May last year.

Dragontail and Colchuck from the lake:


We continued up Aasgard Pass to get a view of the Enchantments. The snow was icy and crampons and an ice ax were pretty much essential (although some superhuman snowshoer who was doing the Enchantments through hike in a day managed his way up without incident). The snow was decent way up high in the Upper Enchantment basin. Unfortunately, we were running out of daylight and had to head back down.

Prusik Peak and the Upper Enchantments:


We also checked out Mt. Stuart's access via the North Fork of the Teanaway River Rd. The road is ungated, but covered with snow starting at 29 Pines campground.