Winter Enchantments Traverse

The Enchantments are probably the most popular backpacking and climbing destination in Washington, and you've almost certainly seen photos of the area in outdoor publications. They get a ton of hype, all of it accurate. This zone is exceptionally beautiful, featuring huge granitic sweeping rock walls, jagged peaks, and tons of alpine lakes. As a result, the Enchantments see a huge number of visitors in the summer months.

Yet they see almost no visitors in the winter. This is not an accident.

Traveling through the Enchantments in the winter is a serious undertaking, requiring a wide range of experience. To consider this tour, you will need to have:

• Experience Winter Navigating in Bad Weather: The Core is entirely above 6,800' and experiences very nasty weather, including gale-force winds, big winter storms, and regular white-outs.

• Experience Winter Camping: There's snow covering the Core between November and June, and you'll need to know how to set up a solid snow camp to keep yourself and your party safe. This should not be your first winter camping trip (and definitely not your first backpacking trip).

• Experience Assessing Avalanche Conditions: This route travels through and beneath a ton of avalanche terrain. You need to be an expert at assessing snow stability in the field, coupled with a very good avalanche forecast from NWAC before attempting this tour.

• Expert Backcountry Skiing Abilities: You’ll be skiing steep and complicated terrain on a huge variety of different snow types, from 40+ degree alpine slopes to frustratingly tight trees, all with an overnight pack on. A beginner will almost certainly have a bad time.

• Lots of gear: Some specifics are discussed below in the Equipment section.

• Solid fitness: you’ll likely be carrying your skis and overnight gear for multiple miles, on the way up and the way down.

• Enough general backcountry experience to make good decisions and keep you and your group safe while deep in the wilderness. This type of experience can't be quantified, and only comes after spending many many days in the backcountry.

No one can decide when you’re ready to ski a traverse like this, and many backcountry skiers never choose to go on overnight tours.

But if you've got all this experience, gear, and feel ready to give this tour a try, it's a spectacular trip into a remarkable area. You likely won’t see anyone else out there - a dramatic difference from the hustle and bustle of the Enchantments in the summertime. And with the added potential to ski Little Annapurna and Dragontail Peak, this multi-day tour is a classic.

Note: you could hypothetically snowshoe this route, but you will likely need more time, as well as all the experience described above. Snowshoeing a route like this is arguably even more difficult than skiing it.

Leave No Trace

If you choose to ski this tour, please do your utmost to respect Leave No Trace principles, including carrying out everything that you bring in, from food and food wrappers to your feces (which should be blue-bagged and carried out in the winter, as the alpine toilets are removed for the off-season). The Enchantments are an incredible place, but they're being badly damaged by overuse. If we can all practice LNT principles, we'll be able to continue to visit this area for years to come.

The Basics

• Seasonality/Snow: This is a tough one. There’s generally enough snow to tour between December and April, but the tricky part is figuring out when you’ll find good weather and stable snow up there. The best time for this tour is probably March to mid-April, depending on snowpack.

• Snow Stability: This tour travels into a remote zone, and even though it occurs within the NWAC forecasting zone, NWAC observers rarely travel this deep. As a result, you’ll need to do a lot of your own snow stability analysis. This is complicated by the fact that you’ll be traveling through a huge elevational range (between the lower trailhead at 1,300’ and the summit of Dragontail at 8,900’). You’ll see a huge variety of snow conditions, and you’ll need to be making decisions constantly. Make sure to check the NWAC observations page before heading out, as your best bet for information is from someone who recently skied the area.

• Permitting: As of June 2021, permits are not currently required for winter overnight travelers. Permits are currently required between May 15th and October 31st, though this could change in the coming seasons. Take the time to check the permitting before your trip.

• Shuttling: The standard summer traverse has two trailheads (one lower trailhead for Snow Lake, and one higher trailhead for Colchuck Lake). The Colchuck Lake Trailhead gets a ton of snow, so the road is generally gated at Bridge Creek Campground through the winter (often until late May or June). As a result, you’ll need to shuttle the ~4 miles between Bridge Creek Campground and Snow Lake Trailhead. Here are some options:

  • Bring two cars. Park one at each trailhead.

  • Bike the shuttle, as it's almost all downhill. Bring one car. Stash your skiing gear at Snow Lake Trailhead, drive to Bridge Creek Campground, leave the car, and bike/coast the 4 miles downhill to Snow Lake Trailhead. Stash your bikes in the woods near the trailhead. This is probably the easiest option.

  • Run the shuttle: Same general system as above.

  • Don't shuttle, carry your gear for the entire loop like a masochist.

• Direction of travel:

  • Clockwise: Almost every skier starts at Snow Lake Trailhead, skins up the lower-angle terrain through the Core, then skis down Aasgard Pass (a 2,200’ steep descent), ultimately exiting at Bridge Creek. This direction will be described below.

  • Counter-clockwise: This is occasionally done, but it’s hard to understand why (for winter travelers). You’d be booting up the steepest terrain on the traverse (Aasgard Pass) before descending extremely low angle slopes to Snow Lake, with few to no real descents.

• Number of Days:

  • It’s possible to do this tour in one single day, but you’ll need to be fit, and you’ll miss out on the best part of the tour - waking up in the Core.

  • Most groups will do this tour in two or three days, though there’s no limit on how long you take. This tour will be described in two days, but you can always add another camp at Snow Lake to break up the burly first day (and then choose a higher camp for night two).

• Add-on options:

  • Ski Little Annapurna (described below)

  • Ski Dragontail Peak (described below)

  • Ski Colchuck Glacier, either by crossing over from Dragontail to Colchuck Col via Pandora's Box or by climbing the Colchuck Glacier from Colchuck Lake.

  • If it’s later in the season, bring an alpine rack and climb one of the alpine rock routes on Prusik Peak midway through the route!

Equipment

Depending on when you’re going and what the snow is like, you’ll need some equipment to keep having fun. There are the obvious things, including your backcountry ski/splitboarding setup, personal safety gear (helmets, goggles, medkit, etc.), and appropriate layers to keep yourself warm and dry. And then there's the technical gear and the overnight gear:

• Avalanche safety gear: beacon, shovel, probe, and the know-how to use it!

• Approach Shoes: As mentioned above, you’ll almost certainly be doing some walking to get up to and down from the snow.

• Traction: Extra traction is essential on bigger ski tours like this. And this line in particular requires thousands of feet of climbing on a huge variety of slopes. You’ll almost certainly need additional traction (beyond just your skins and boots).

  • Ski crampons: these will be essential, especially in the early morning in the Core and if you’re planning to make attempts on Little Annapurna and Dragontail Peak.

  • Boot crampons: these are a good idea if you think it’ll be icy, or if you’re planning on climbing Little Annapurna/Dragontail Peak.

  • Lightweight ice axe and/or BD Whippet: you’ll be skiing and climbing on steep slopes with exposure above dropoffs and rocks - an ice axe or Whippet is a good idea.

• Radios: Radios are becoming more and more common in the backcountry skiing world, as they dramatically improve communication and safety, especially on more complex tours like this one. Bring them.

• GPS/Navigation: You’ll need a GPS and a pre-loaded track for this tour, as navigation can get complicated in the tight trees below treeline (especially on the exit), and white-outs are common in the Core.

• Overnight Gear: This shouldn’t be your first winter overnight trip - bring the right gear to keep yourself comfortable and safe at 6,800’+. 

A note on terminology: the Enchantments have several permitting zones - the Snow Lake Zone and the Colchuck Lake Zone (which are obvious), and the Core: the large and lake-studded basin above 6,800’ between Lake Viviane (on the eastern side) and Aasgard Pass (on the western side).

The Trip

The Climb to the Core

You’ll start at Snow Lake Trailhead, having figured out your shuttle situation (options are described above). Pick up your stupidly heavy pack and cross Icicle Creek before following the trail up toward Snow Lake. The trail switchbacks constantly for the first few miles. Depending on the season and your timing, you’ll get to snow eventually. Transition onto skis, and continue generally following the summer trail uphill, diverging where it makes sense. You’ll spend a long time climbing in a tight valley before finally crossing Snow Creek around 4,100’. Stay on the climber’s right side of the valley as you climb up to Nada Lake.

Continue to follow the summer trail right around Nada Lake before climbing a short slope up to Snow Lake, where the views finally start getting good. Depending on how cold it’s been, you can either tour across Snow Lake or follow the summer trail along the southern shore. If you planned to camp at Snow Lake, you’ll find good spots near the lake inlet.

The climb from Snow Lake to Lake Viviane is long and tough and will require you to fight through a lot of tight trees. Roughly follow the summer trail up to 5,900’ before it curves left. From here, you’ll want to continue climbing up east of the trail as the slopes gradually become less-heavily treed. At 6,500’, begin a long traverse to the Lake Viviane outflow. Once you reach the outflow, you’re through the worst of the climb!

The Core

You’ve entered the Core, and you’re now surrounded by mountains and frozen lakes! Camp near any lake you like the look of - Lake Vivian and Perfection Lake are both relatively well protected - though don’t go too high unless you expect perfect weather. The Upper Core (above 7,300’) is significantly more windswept and less treed. Enjoy the views of the steep Prusik Peak (to the north) and McClellan Peak (to the south).

When you’re ready to continue through the Core, you’ll want to roughly follow the summer trail, though you can cut across the lakes to save miles. Pass by Leprechaun Lake, Perfection Lake, and Inspiration Lake before climbing up into the austere Upper Core.

From here, you can decide whether you want to ski off Little Annapurna or continue to Aasgard Pass. If you choose to skip the extra peaks, you’ll ski west through the open landscape before climbing the last few hundred feet up to Aasgard Pass.

Skiing Little Annapurna 

To climb Little Annapurna, you’ll skin southwest from Inspiration Lake. The slope gets gradually steeper, but never exceeds 40 degrees, and shouldn’t require booting unless it’s very icy (though ski crampons will be important). If you want to ascend a gentler slope, you can traverse around to the northwest aspect of Little Annapurna. Either way, you’ll reach the rocky summit quickly. Enjoy grand views in all directions before transitioning for a fun descent. 

Your ultimate goal is to end up on Isolation Lake, so ski the steeper northern slopes on Little Annapurna before turning skier’s left and traversing across West Annapurna and following a small ridge down. This will kick you out on Isolation Lake. From here, you can easily traverse north to Aasgard Pass or continue northwest to attempt Dragontail Peak.

Skiing Dragontail Peak

Head northwest into the (dying) Snow Creek Glacier basin. From here, you’ll skin straight west to the obvious notch at 8,500’ (just south of the Dragontail summit). Be careful of overhead hazards in this basin. Once at the notch, swing onto the south face below the summit, and head straight up the slope to the blocky summit of Dragontail - the true summit is about as far right on the ridge as you can get. You’ll likely have to boot the final hundred feet, as the top of Dragontail is quite rocky.

From the summit, you’ll have incredible 360-degree views, east down into the Core, west to Colchuck Peak and the mighty Mount Stuart, south to Mount Rainier, and north toward Colchuck Lake and the end of the traverse. Once you’ve had your fill of the views, prepare for a very very long descent. Take a look down at the top of Aasgard Pass and check how snowy or wind-blasted it is.

When you’re ready, descend the south-facing slopes to the notch at 8,500’ before skiing the wide-open bowl over to Aasgard Pass.

Descending from Aasgard Pass

Any bad weather in the area funnels straight through Aasgard Pass and it’s often wind-scoured as a result. Depending on conditions, skiing Aasgard Pass can be perfect turns or picking your way between rocks, wind-scour, and cliffs. Or most likely both. There are two zones to think about - the upper lip of Aasgard at 7,750’ (most will enter from the south, though you can enter from the lower angle east if there’s enough snow), and the steep secondary rollover at 7,400’ (which you’ll need to ski/downclimb as snow conditions dictate). This rollover section may require ice axes and/or crampons if it’s particularly icy.

Once you’re down at 7,100’, you should be through the crux of the descent. Enjoy just under 2,000’ of high-quality turns all the way down to Colchuck Lake. If the lake is frozen solid, you can ski straight out across it. Otherwise, you may need to follow the summer trail along its western edge. Either way, you’re heading for the northern tip of the lake. Make sure to take in the views toward Dragontail and Colchuck peaks!

Descending from Colchuck Lake

This is where the traverse can get a bit stressful, so make sure you take your time between here and the trailhead. If you’ve still got a thick snowpack, you’ll have a much better time than if things are thin. Either way, you’ll descend the steep slopes north of Colchuck Lake. When in doubt, follow the summer trail down, as there are many cliffs and rollovers just off the trail. Ultimately, you’ll finish this slope by traversing skier’s right through a large boulder field before finally crossing a bridge at 4,500’ over Mountaineer’s Creek.

When you’re here, you may want to get your skins back on. Sure, you've got 2,400’ to descend, but it's stretched out over 6 miles, so if you leave your skins off, you’ll be doing an obnoxious amount of sidestepping. Either way, continue down the summer trail, crossing back to the right side of Mountaineer’s Creek at 4,000’ on a bridge that may be covered in snow. Continue down the low-angle trail until you reach the Colchuck Lake trailhead at 3,400’. From here, you’re following the flattish road until you get back to your car. The road finally becomes steep enough to comfortably ski down at around 3,200’, and if you’re lucky enough to have continuous snow to the lower trailhead, this section will go by in a flash. Otherwise, ski till the snow ends, then shoulder your heavy pack and finish the traverse with a steep road-walk back to the car.

Finish up your shuttle, then go get some bratwursts and beverages in Leavenworth to celebrate!

Participate in your backcountry community!

Congratulations, you just finished a pretty difficult traverse! Please consider posting a trip report in the local backcountry skiing pages (Facebook, Turns-All-Year, etc.), as there are definitely other skiers who are eyeing this line and wondering about conditions! And also please consider submitting an observation to NWAC describing the travel conditions and snow stability you found! Submitting NWAC observations and writing trip reports on forums are great ways to contribute to the community and improve avalanche forecasts. It's also incredibly valuable to read the NWAC observations and trip reports written by others, as they'll help keep you updated on what the mountains are doing on a day-to-day basis. This will help determine whether you have a fun time next time you get out!