Colchuck Lake/Enchantments -- May 11--14
5/15/06
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
2798
0
My friend Karl flew up from Houston for some vertical relief. Given the iffy forecast for Thursday and Friday last week we decided to try the Stuart range. Beautiful trip with generally excellent conditions.
As described in other posts, you could drive almost to the trailhead (by the return it was clear all the way). Boot packing on reasonable snow to the Colchuck Trail fork, where we skinned up to the Lake in iffy conditions. I did a nice 1000 vf to the moraine the first evening on sloppy old corn.
Friday we boot packed to Colchuck Col up the Glacier. No crampons required but it was a fairly close thing. We had a beautiful run of about 1600 vf down Porcupine Creek on perfect corn. Gorgeous views of the Teanaway Peaks, with nice granite towers on the backsides of Colchuck, Dragontail and Argonaut. Also a nice fall line through larch benches. Would love to take it all the way to Ingalls sometime.
We cut the run short to return to the Col before the northside got to soft, but the haste was badly timed -- with the cold conditions, wind and scudding clouds of Friday it never softened. Had an intimidating (especially for the Houston contingent), scratchy run down to the lake.
Saturday was perfect. Booted over Asgard on more of the hard styrofoam. The run down to the lowest lake in the Enchantments (Vivianne) was a beautiful cruise on great corn, mostly gentle grade punctuated with some nice rollovers and skating sections across the many lakes.
After napping on granite rocks at the outlet stream, we skinned back to Asgard, and this time the warming trend delivered. The corn was great dropping down to the lake, which was nice since some of the benches are a little steep and exposed over rocks. Could be wild in tough conditions. In these, it was fantastic.
On Sunday, we only had time to slog out before depositing Karl on an airplane back to Texas steeps. Skis were just utilitarian tools. Do I lose all posting privileges on TAY if I admit that we skied down to the junction with skins on?
Great area, great trip. More pictures here. http://rossmac.smugmug.com/Skiing
(tried to Post this a few days ago, when it would have been fresher and more useful -- don't know what happened).
As described in other posts, you could drive almost to the trailhead (by the return it was clear all the way). Boot packing on reasonable snow to the Colchuck Trail fork, where we skinned up to the Lake in iffy conditions. I did a nice 1000 vf to the moraine the first evening on sloppy old corn.
Friday we boot packed to Colchuck Col up the Glacier. No crampons required but it was a fairly close thing. We had a beautiful run of about 1600 vf down Porcupine Creek on perfect corn. Gorgeous views of the Teanaway Peaks, with nice granite towers on the backsides of Colchuck, Dragontail and Argonaut. Also a nice fall line through larch benches. Would love to take it all the way to Ingalls sometime.
We cut the run short to return to the Col before the northside got to soft, but the haste was badly timed -- with the cold conditions, wind and scudding clouds of Friday it never softened. Had an intimidating (especially for the Houston contingent), scratchy run down to the lake.
Saturday was perfect. Booted over Asgard on more of the hard styrofoam. The run down to the lowest lake in the Enchantments (Vivianne) was a beautiful cruise on great corn, mostly gentle grade punctuated with some nice rollovers and skating sections across the many lakes.
After napping on granite rocks at the outlet stream, we skinned back to Asgard, and this time the warming trend delivered. The corn was great dropping down to the lake, which was nice since some of the benches are a little steep and exposed over rocks. Could be wild in tough conditions. In these, it was fantastic.
On Sunday, we only had time to slog out before depositing Karl on an airplane back to Texas steeps. Skis were just utilitarian tools. Do I lose all posting privileges on TAY if I admit that we skied down to the junction with skins on?
Great area, great trip. More pictures here. http://rossmac.smugmug.com/Skiing
(tried to Post this a few days ago, when it would have been fresher and more useful -- don't know what happened).
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