Colchuck Lake
Elain and I wanted to climb Dragontail Peak via the Aasgard Pass route this weekend. We had originally planned an overnight climb, but the poor weather forecast lessened our interest in camping at Colchuck Lake. So we decided to try to day-hike Dragontail. When we started out at 7:30 AM, it was chilly and partly cloudy. We made it to the far side of Colchuck Lake by 10:30 AM, where we stopped to have lunch. The upper slopes of Dragontail were starting to cloud over, and the north face of Dragontail was covered with a light dusting of snow. We started up the wet talus toward Aasgard Pass, and reached the snow line at about 6600'. After we crossed the small waterfall, the rocky trail and slabs were covered in ice. We ascended the next 800' using crampons (Elain with in-steps and me with Al). At Aasgard Pass, it was snowing and there was a 15-knot wind. Visibility was limited to about 150-200 meters. We crossed over to the base of the glacier remnant below Dragontail's summit ridge at about 8000 ft. The glacier was bullet-hard ice covered with 1-2 inches of fresh snow. It was about 12:45 PM at this point. Given the deteriorating weather and the condition of the glacier, we decided to turn around. Descending from our turn-around point to Colchuck Lake was very slow due to the now quite slippery snow-covered rock. It took us about 3 hours to decend the 2200 ft. It was snowing hard at Colchuck Lake, and the talus we had crossed earlier was now also covered with snow. We made it to the first bridge at dusk, and hiked out under headlamps. We reached the car at 8:30 PM. Overall, we were pleased with how my ankle fared on the relatively varied terrain of this trip.
Colchuck Lake
Dragontail Peak
Colchuck Peak
Elain climbing
Elain climbing
Steve near Aasgard Pass
Elain descending from Aasgard Pass
Elain by Colchuck Lake, looking bedraggled