Little Annapurna, 2007/07/08

Little Annapurna

July 8, 2007

We'd never visited the Enchantments proper, so decided to remedy that and scramble Little Annapurna. The preferred route for us would have been via the Snow Lake trailhead since we had never seen that area. However, we didn't have a permit for an overnight and it would have been too far for me in my current condition to do as a day trip. So we went in via Asgard Pass. We drove out Sat. evening and slept in the Jeep at the Stuart Lake trailhead. We started hiking the trail at 5:15 AM and made it to the far side of the lake around 8:45 AM. We took a few short breaks to filter water and have a snack. We then slowly made our way up to Asgard Pass, thankful that we were still in the shade. The views down to the lake were very nice and helped pass the time. We arrived at the top of the pass around 11:15 AM. We descended a bit into the basin and found a place to rest and filter water near little Lake Vivienne. We had a good view of Little Annapurna's very gentle northern slope. We stayed on the trail until we reached snow leading to the base of the northern side. The snow was generally very good for kicking steps, but since we had our campons with us, we put them on for extra security two-thirds of the way up. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies, a few puffy clouds, and lots of sun. Actually, too much sun for me. There was no breeze to be had, and I was overdressed in my long-sleeve capilene shirt and pants, so was very worried about getting overheated. Steve was super patient waiting for me as I stopped every few steps to apply snow to my face and torso in an attempt to cool down. We eventually made it to the large summit plateau at 2:00 PM. We scrambled to the top of the highest of the rock structures and had a snack and admired the views of mountains including Stuart, Rainier and Glacier Peak, as well as several impressively craggy peaks closer to us. After a brief check for the summit register (I couldn't find one), we headed back down. On the way back to Asgard Pass, we saw a family of goats that included an adorable baby goat. We'd never seen such a little one before. After some goat watching, we resumed our traverse to the pass and then descended. The descent of Asgard was tedious and very hot and by the time we crossed paths with the stream near the bottom, I was ready for a break to cool down. We were both tired and somehow lost the trail on the far side of the lake by going too high and stubbornly moving on rather than just backtracking. We ended up wasting 30 minutes bushwacking through tiny green bug-infested thick slide alder until we reached one of the large talus fields and found the continuation of the trail down low. After that bit of fun, we were happy to be back on nice trail. We reached the large footbridge near dusk and arrived at the trailhead just after 10:15 PM. The total distance was 16 miles and the elevation gain was 5500'. We hadn't been expecting quite that long a day (we're speculating that this is some sort of record), but it was a fun outing on a beautiful summer day. We are definitely looking forward to our next trip (with a longer stay) into the Enchantments.

Hiking up to Asgard Pass