Background
This summer I’ve been bouncing around a lot, traveling frequently enough to miss home but also enjoy time away. It’s an oscillation of my own design, adding variety to shake up my life a bit. After a week+ in Europe, I was psyched to get back into the hills back in Washington before Fall truly falls and rains come. Nick and I pinpointed Friday, tossing around some ideas in the North Cascades; weather wasn’t quite lining up like we hoped for the westside of the mountains, so we briefly brainstormed east. What about the Stuart Range?
Quickly, a line in Caltopo came together, enchaining the NW route up Colchuck I’d done earlier this year to Dragontail via Pandora’s Box, then out to Little Annapurna and out, somehow. That ‘somehow’ would end up being the key nugget; I drew out Toketie Creek, in addition to the traditional joggle (jog-shuffle, it’s a new word, trust me) out Snow Lakes.
Lane was available and psyched, which also meant wild pivots were possible. Lane will propose interesting, often much more adventurous, alternatives to traditional lines across the mountains. The wider his grin, though, the more I should be nervous and dubious. Lane brought up exiting out Hook Creek, the drainage that comes out from Edward Mesa, a wild geological feature that used to be lake bottom way back when. There’s seashells up there! Let’s just get to Little Annapurna and see where we’re at, I pointed out. We had a lot of terrain to cover before needing to make a decision about exit strategy; if we were ahead of schedule, we could entertain weird pivots.
Trip Report
We got rolling from the Colchuck TH (which surprisingly had parking) by 745A. We made decent time to Colchuck Lake, not having to dodge too many people! A quick fill up of water in some morning chill, then we turned off from the highway and began up the NW route of Colchuck.
This time, route finding went quite smoothly and we cruised; I was impressed that most of the route felt familiar and quite logical. The scrambling wasn’t quite as good as I’d remembered it, with some pretty lichen-y sections, but there were still some goods! The real best parts were up high on the ridge, when your position above the lake and the eastern face of Colchuck is quite impressive.
We topped out Colchuck ahead of schedule, stoked! It was a bit windy up top so we didn’t stop to snack or dawdle. More joggling down from Colchuck took us to Banshee Pass, though this time we were heading up Dragontail and not down the very sad looking Colchuck Glacier. Last time I was up here, my friends Steven and Jenny talked up some scrambling around Pandora’s Box to Dragontail that I was psyched to check out!
More great scrambling next to Pandora’s Box and we were on top of Dragontail! Nick, Lane and I all remarked that it’d been a minute since we each, individually, were up here. It was nice to return. The view over the core zone was lovely; yes, the Enchantments are crowded but there’s a reason.
We continued on towards Witch’s Tower, which we had to bag, then on to Little Annapurna. We remarked at how neat the saddle between Little Annapurna and Witch’s Tower was, a great campspot maybe for a Stuart Range Traverse? This section was really lovely, feeling proximal to the core zone but much less trodden. There were some sparse cairns, presumably from traversers.
We topped out Little Annapurna and stopped for a snack. We were well ahead of schedule, travel had been so smooth and efficient so far! Lane’s grin grew, knowing that his proposed exit out Edward Mesa had more potential to it with our banked time budget. Let’s get to the Prusik turn-off, then assess, we agreed. Nick was reluctant and I was ambivalent. It was clear that we were likely heading into the unknown, as opposed to out Snow Lakes.
We enjoyed some faster miles through the core zone along the ‘trail’. Nick’s memory of smooth, singletrack through the core Enchantments was laughable, as that trail is anything but smooth (except for some very brief sections). Lane and I egged each other on, talking down the Snow Lakes trail. It’s so chunky, it basically sucks. Our minds were clearly magnetized towards Hook Creek, even if we didn’t know what we were in for yet.
Sure enough, we got to the turn off for Prusik Pass and laughably joked around at the ‘decision’ to make. But the decision was already made, we were heading towards the unknown. Nick may have played the bit of being reluctant, but within minutes of turning off we were all jazzed. Today wasn’t going to be a run and that was entirely alright.
The travel over Prusik Pass and across Shield Lake towards Toketie Pass was enjoyable and quite interesting! There’s a lot of neat larch tunnels around Shield Lake and a really cool rock slab to the east of Mesa Lake that leads towards the pass. We were enjoying our choice of solitude and lesser trodden ground; traveling along the lakeshores was much easier at this point later in the summer/fall when boggy areas were bone dry. Earlier in the year, I’d imagine travel would be harder.
A little scrambling remained to get up to Edward Mesa from Toketie Pass, but it was all simple and pleasant. Edward Mesa was so unique! A high plateau, 2000m above the Icicle. Lane told a story of an older climber who spent 3 months up here, putting up first ascents on some of the granite towers nearby! Smiles were wide, vibes were high, Hook Creek awaited us.
We pushed off the mesa and got out first view of the drainage descent. Woah. The relief down to the Icicle was impressive, with The Mole and other spires towering high above. There was a foreboding, dark shadow cast over the choss below. Maybe it’ll be dirt-pow, I joked. And sure enough, for the first 500m or so it was! We heel plunged our way down, being careful to not kick rocks on top of one another, everyone sending dirt sluff down the drainage though. Travel was quite easy down to 1700m or so, but from there it got significantly worse.
What was dirt-pow turned into careful boulder-hopping, which later turned into dead-tree dodging, which later turned to sidehilling with tree-belays. I wish I had pants, Lane remarked. We began to descend into the ‘joking phase’ of a good shwack’, when the present situation clearly sucks and the best thing to do is make light of it. We all played a part in the act, joking about the ‘locals only’ descent of Hook Creek. At some point we silenced for a bit, a sign that calories were low and in reality, at this point we all just wanted some Heidleburger. We’re all soft in the summertime, maybe I’m soft all year, I joked, SAY (Soft All Year).
We managed to pick up some form of trail once we were past Yellowjacket Tower, which was comical because at that point the terrain was open and tree-free so trail didn’t add that much value. Nonetheless, we shuffled down, reaching the road in time to get a hitch to our car at Snow Lakes, rage the drive back to Colchuck, and make it to Heidleburger in time for a burger and shake. All was well in the world then, the misery of Hook Creek abated by grease and dairy.