Dragontail Peak, Cannon Peak, The Enchantment

Aug 20, 2020

We are the Mountain Goats, Terrence(14), and Nathan(17), and recently we spent 4 days in the Enchantments. 

Day 1: The first day we hiked up to Colchuck Lake with our heavy packs. The Stuart Lake Trailhead/parking lot was packed on Wednesday, and there were very few spots left, with people parking all down the road. We started heading up towards Colchuck Lake at about 1:30. Most people reading this are probably familiar with the trail to Colchuck Lake.  The first two and a half miles, most  of the trail is relatively flat and easy, but once you hit the 2nd Creek crossing the trail begins to steepen. For the next mile and a half the trail steeply ascends the ridge up to Colchuck Lake. We hit the lake at around 4:30. We walked around the lake for 30-45 minutes until we found a good camp-spot on the boulder field at the south end of the lake, near the trail to Aasgard Pass. We set up camp and got a good nights rest. 

Colchuck Lake and Dragontail

Our camp spot, Hi Maxine!

Day 2: We got up reasonably late(around 7:30) and started going up Aasgard Pass around 8:30. Our plan was to climb Dragontail, then head through the Core and climb Cannon mountain.  Aasgard is it's usual rocky and dusty self - remember to stay left of the "tree island."  There are many paths and cairns that all eventually lead to the same place.  It took us around 90 minutes to get to where the trail splits and followed the  cutoff to Dragontail. From here the trail heads up rocky terrain towards the top of the pass, west of where you would normally arrive.  Head west up the large gully towards the south ridge of Dragontail, staying to the right and heading towards a point where you can enter the snowfield, almost at the top of the gully. Navigating this part of the trail is slow going as there are lots of boulders to get over, and there is not a defined path. On the snowfield we used micro-spikes and poles, and got across the snowfield pretty quickly.  After climbing the last bit of rock, we achieved the ridge.   From there we dropped our packs, put on helmets and did the pretty easy trail scramble to the top where we summited at about 11:45.  The view was perfectly clear and the exposure was epic.  Looking down the sheer north face, we could just make out our campsite on the lake.

Looking down on the Colchuck

Tarn underneath Dragontail

Looking at the route

Up we go!

BOOM

After enjoying the amazing views, we quickly descended to the ridge to the point where we entered the snowfield again.  From here, our dad decided to do the high traverse along the ridge, heading south and east to climb Little Annapurna.  Along with our friend Lars, we descended down the snowfield, back tracking our route to the boulder field, and eventually picking up the main trail into the Core.  We only encountered two people on Dragontail, coming up as we were going down.  Going through the Core, we ran into about ten people - thankfully it wasn't too crowded.  As we made our way towards Prusik Pass, we ran into our dad, who was coming back from Little A - and a good thing too, since he had the maps of our route to Cannon.  We saw a couple of goats in the Core, and it was pretty peaceful, overall - it is very flat here, and easy to move quickly.  

Prusik Peak

At Perfection Lake, we picked up the Prusik Pass trail and made our way up to the pass.  The trail here is pretty steep, but also pretty short.  From the pass you have amazing views of much of the Core, Prusik Peak to your right, and then down into the Lost World Plateau, where we could see Shield and Earl Lake.  The views were simply spectacular.  From here, there was no trail, so using our maps, we headed towards Cannon, staying high on the ridge.  After about an hour, we crossed a creek, and made our way towards a small, un-named lake.  We went around the left-hand side of the lake, and made it up to a small plateau.  At this point it was getting late, and we knew if we were to summit Cannon, we wouldn't make it back to Colchuck Lake before dark.  We decided we would have to bivouac.  We dropped out packs here, donned our puffy coats, and continued up, eventually reaching the Druid Plateau, pretty much right below the summit.  From here, we scrambled up rock to the south ridge, where we could finally see the true summit.  At this point, we continued up the ridge (an easy scramble) until achieving the summit area, which is topped by a huge, smooth, steep boulder, about 15 feet high, that represents to true summit.  The exposure from this boulder is extreme, with high consequence if one were to fall.  We got to the summit at 6:15.

Cannon Peak true summit

The views were absolutely amazing - especially of Dragontail and Stuart, and back into the Lost World Plateau.  After enjoying our views, we headed down to set up our bivouac site.  While having our meager dinner, a mountain goat decided to invade our camp, circling us, and coming right through our site.  We used our poles to bang on rocks, which eventually caused the goat to wander away.  Another goat also lurked nearby.  After hunkering down in our bivy's, we experienced rain and pretty high winds as the weather quickly changed.  Sleep was hard to come by, but we stayed dry and warm.  

I suppose we’re on his land

Day 3:  We awoke at 6:45, made a quick breakfast, and headed back towards our camp.  Luckily it wasn't raining.  We back-tracked our path, seeing at least a dozen mountain goats, and went back up and over Prusik Pass.  It was very windy and very cold going through the Core and descending Aasgard.  We probably ran into 100 people total coming up.  Many seemed not prepared for the weather and the conditions.  We got back to our campsite about 12:00.  That afternoon it poured rain, and was very windy.  We hunkered down in our tents and just relaxed.  Luckily it stopped raining around dinner time, and we were able to make some nice meals and have a good evening.

Day 4:  We awoke to sunshine and watched at least 200-250 people pouring through the north side of the lake heading towards Aasgard Pass.  Many appeared to be through-hiking (at least the ones starting early).  It was an absolute madhouse  and we could see the trail of people going up Aasgard.  There was no peace and quiet or solitude to be found on this Saturday in the Enchantments.  We scrambled up to the base of Colchuck col, and watched a party climbing the face of Dragontail.  Heading out in late afternoon, we navigated the mobs of people coming and going to Colchuck.  We were shocked to see people parked on both sides of the road all the way down and past Eight-Mile Lake trailhead.  

We really enjoyed our time in the Enchantments.  Overall it was a very fun experience - we knew that doing Dragontail and Cannon in one day would be very tough, but we were prepared.  That day we gained 5,300 feet of elevation in 6 miles.  

Thanks for reading and happy hiking!