Enchantments

Mount Stuart is probably my favorite mountain in Washington. Tall, prominent, steep, visible from everywhere, and composed of beautiful black & white granite. After failing to summit via the Cascadian Couloir back in 2019 I was determined to flex my newfound trad climbing skills on the famous West Ridge route. However, there were some factors that made me nervous: I’d moved to Atlanta in June of 2020, and was a few hundred million years too late to experience the Appalachians as much more than rolling hills. This meant my legs hadn’t been exposed to a serious mountain for more than a year, and I also lacked significant recent scrambling exposure. I was worried my endurance or my nerves would give out. Finally, although I’d been putting in time on excellent trad crack routes around the southeast, I’d never put those skills to use in a multi-pitch alpine environment. As a novice trad leader I was also quite slow - and speed is safety in the mountains. Thankfully all went off without a hitch over the course of a 20 hour day and I had a tremendously good time! The joy of this route is captured in this video by a trail-running soloist:

Republished from the WTA website here.

Put car snacks in a critter-proof container! We had some nice victory snacks stashed in the trunk at the Snow Lakes trailhead, but returned to find mice had gotten into them! Imagine me, stumbling down the endless Snow Lakes trail, wanting nothing more than chocolate peanut butter cups & white cheddar popcorn, only to have my dreams shattered.

Parked at Snow Lakes trailhead then took a shuttle up to Colchuck trailhead. Snow Lakes parking space was limited even on a Thursday morning. We had a two-person overnight permit for the core so stayed Thursday & Friday nights. Decided to hike out late Saturday night to avoid the Sunday rain. Took us five hours from Lake Viviane to Snow Lakes trailhead, moving at a fast pace.

Republished from the WTA website here.

Attempted summit of Mount Stuart via Cascadian Couloir route, parking as Esmerelda Trailhead and approaching via Long’s Pass. Main takeaways:

• Bring crampons
• Consider summiting later in the day when the snow has softened
• The summit will probably be covered in cloud until it burns off around noon
• You need a national forest pass (or equivalent) to park at Esmerelda Trailhead

Began hiking at noon Saturday, intending to bivy around 7800-8200 feet then summit Sunday. Reached Ingals Creek in 2:15 pm; rested, hydrated, and loaded up with water (we assumed no water available on CC route). Encountered many climbers who had turned back due to morning snow conditions below false summit; most had only brought microspikes. One climber in microspikes had reportedly slipped & failed to self-arrest, sliding into rocks. They were banged up but able to walk themselves out. Snowpack was reported as one inch of soft snow over soft ice, and all said they felt insecure in microspikes and wished they had brought crampons. Almost exactly one year ago a climber died while descending that steep snow section, and it is notorious for claiming femurs.

Loved this route so much I had to go back and do it again. Some friends had heard of our ascent the year prior and appreciated having me as a guide. Went two weeks earlier in the season this time, so dodged the snow but the larches weren’t fully turned. Since much of the route was the same as the last trip I’ll spare most of those details, covering only the differences.

The Enchantments is a wildly popular hiking & climbing area in Washington, just outside the town of Leavenworth. The standard hike starts from Colchuck Lake trailhead, past the eponymous lake, up Aasgard Pass, through the upper then lower Enchantments, then slogs out to the Snow Lakes trailhead. We decided to take a different route: starting from Colchuck Lake trailhead, we’d follow the trail for several miles along the flat section until hitting the bridge to cross over the river. We’d then turn off-trail due East and scramble straight uphill to get to Cannon Mountain, a lesser-climbed peak in the area. From there we’d drop back down into the main Enchantments area and descend Aasgard pass to return to Colchuck Lake trailhead. One really unique & beautiful aspect of The Enchantments is the larch trees, deciduous conifers that turn a brilliant gold color in the fall. Unfortunately there is a very short window between the larches turning color and the snow coming in to make experiencing them much more miserable. We hoped to hit that window; alas, we were a few days late!