The Enchantments Traverse-ish

Enchantments Traverse, Stuart Range, Washington Cascades

Four days, 33.4 miles, 13,400' elevation gain (including extracurricular lines)

April 12-15, 2024

Skinning across Isolation Lake towards Dragontail Peak, day 3.

The snow is starting to fall across the West, and so is my productivity at work as I spend more and more time pouring over NOAA and CalTopo. I can't scratch the itch to go ski quite yet, but the next best has been dusting off some drafts that I began last season and, for one reason or another, never finished. Six months removed from the sights, sounds, and feelings that made this trip so incredible, I can't recall all the details that typically breathe Pulitzer-quality life into my blog posts. So, I've chosen to write this one a bit more matter of fact than is typical. Some readers will no doubt be thankful for this. 

There area  lot of great trip reports that describe our general route, often called the Enchantments Traverse. However, Zach and I did our trip with a somewhat different goal in mind that a typical point-to-point traverse . In fact, we didn't even know that this was a fairly established traverse until we returned. Our itinerary was nothing revolutionary; we opted to move camp a short distance each day and  spend the rest of the time skiing a variety of lines surrounding us. This worked really well in an area like this, where the trailhead-to-trailhead distance isn't huge and there is an incredible selection of ski lines everywhere you look. To me, it would have felt like crime to blow by this incredible terrain without sampling some of it. 

Tracklogs taken on our route overlaid on Sentinel satellite imagery taken the week of our trip. Shoutout CalTopo for the awesome new 3D feature. 

Day 1: Trailhead to Temple Lake - 6,100' gained, 10.7 mi

The day began in trail runners at Snow Lakes Trailhead, where Zach and I had managed to avoid detection by the Forest Service the night before. The snow began intermittently about 2 miles into the hike, but didn't become reliable enough to skin until about 5 miles in at ~4,000'. The going got tough on the final pitch up to Temple Lake due to the steep, awkward skinning, frequent underbrush, and goopy snow. Our hard work was rewarded at our camp, however, a beautiful snowy rib between Temple and Viviane Lakes. We pitched the tipi tent near a sliver of bare granite and soaked in the view, which encompassed pretty much the entire Enchantments core. 

Ripping skins with The Temple in the background. The line we skied is the skinny chute through the biggest chunk of rock. 

Day 2: Temple Lake to Little Annapurna

We left camp set up and started off in downhill mode, shooting down the short hill to Temple Lake and then skinning across the flat snow. There are a variety of couloirs slicing up the face of the mountain, and we choose the one that looked best based on the timing of the sun as well as having the fewest trees to hit. We booted up it to near the top. There was a small upper section that continued to climb lookers right, but it was quite steep and narrow so we wussed out. Later, as we saw the upper section staring at us from Little Annapurna, we regretted not having gone for it. The upper section of the couloir was fairly wide and skied well, which led to a tighter, icier choke. Past the choke was an apron with lots of old roller balls to dodge at first, and then some lovely corn that provided some of the creamiest turns all trip.  

We packed up camp and continued west across the rolling hills and frozen lakes. At Perfection Lake we saw a set of bear tracks in a straight line headed towards lower elevations to the south. We made camp at the foot of Little Annapurna. After a very rough bear hang was constructed for our food on a pyramid-shaped rock, we headed off for some more day-skiing. Once you are in the Enchantment Basin there is endless opportunity for "Old Man skiing." We enjoyed the low-angle, extremely scenic slopes of West Annapurna and Little Annapurna before returning to camp. Zach opted to dry his boot liners while I headed for a line called Enchanted in the guidebook, which sits across the valley. I made it to the notch in the ridge at the top of the line about 30 minutes after the Sun left it, which set me up for some of the truly worst ski conditions of my life. I could feel every ligament in my knees get torqued with each turn through the crust-on-slush. Overall, a very satisfying day with a great variety of short lines. 

Day 3: Little Annapurna to Colchuck Lake

We packed up camp in the morning and continued west, towards Dragontail Peak and Asgard Pass. After dropping most of our gear at the lip of Asgard, we worked our way around the bowl on the east side of Dragontail to the notch at ~8,500. The skiing was incredible, especially with the epic position in a steep-sided granite bowl at the top of Enchantment Basin. 

After grabbing our gear we started down Asgard Pass, which ended up being spicier than expected due to some icy and lumpy snow and blind cliffs. We made it to Colchuck Lake mostly unscathed and ate lunch in the sun, then dropped gear at the lake and started up towards Colchuck Glacier. Unaware that the once-proud glacier had been reduced to a miserable pile of ice chunks that no longer posed a crevasse threat, we decided to rope up. We were most of the way to the saddle at the top of the glacier when frequent snow and ice falling off of Dragontail and Colchuck Peaks caused us to reconsider and descend from there. Once back at the lake we contemplated another run, but the snow had been so sticky coming down that any more skiing would have been an exercise in misery. We skinned to the other side of Colchuck Lake, staying close to shore on the ice due to some suspiciously thin spots towards the center. We found a patch of sweet, sweet dry ground and made camp. 

Zach starting down Asgard Pass.

Day 4: Colchuck Lake to Icicle Road

We could tell that our camp was near the elevation where the snowpack would make skiing impractical, but we decided to roll the dice. After a good deal of practice stepping from log to log in skis across piles of blowdown, we switched to bootpacking about halfway down to Mountaineer Creek. The rest of the way out was uneventful, though I was overjoyed to find one of the backcountry toilets on the thawed-out valley floor. Eight Mile Road was still gated where it met Icicle Road, which meant a few extra miles of road slog once we hit the summer trailhead. Zach arrived at the gate ahead of me and was kind enough to jog the few miles of Icicle Road back to where the truck was parked and then pick me up.

Overall, I thought that this style of itinerary, combing a through-route of an area with a lot of extra skiing along the way, was a well-balanced way to explore a new area. When I'm in town next, I'd love to do a similar style of trip one drainage over in the Stuart/Eightmile Creek area, or else do more of a standard ski traverse from Snow Lakes TH all the way out to French Creek or even Stevens Pass. Or even into the Mt. Daniel area, who knows?

-Will Gattiker

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