A few weeks ago I headed out to see the larches of the Stuart Range show their fall colors. We hiked from Colchuck Lake to Snow Lake’s parking lot. 20 miles. My knees didn’t enjoy it, but I certainly did. Washington isn’t known like Colorado for fall colors, but the goods just hide in the high alpine. A bit of muscle power is required, but larches put on quite the show.
Looking up Asgard Pass. Just up there is Valhalla, and the Land of the Gods (or at least some pretty mountains).
Navigating the boulder fields in the morning around Colchuck Lake.
Hiking around Colchuck Lake. I’ve never seen it this low. You can see the normal water level line at the top of the rock above Phil.
The shoulder of Dragontail Peak, from halfway up Asgard.
Once we got over Asgard into the main Enchantments, the larches exploded with color.
We don’t get much fall color in Washington, but larches make up for it.
Looking off toward Prusik Peak.
Our dry winter and summer has made Upper Snow Lake unbelievably low. It’s probably about 100 feet below normal.
Here’s a recap of the WildSnow posts for the week of October 12th thru October 17th, 2015:
Avalanche beacon search refresher with the VIPs of BCA.
How much safer does an airbag make you? Find out here.
Hayden Peak 1986, Edgerly and Writing Life
#WildSnowNZ — Beau heads down to the Southern Alps for snow, snow, snow.
No snow yet in the PNW but skiers are getting their stoke with these preseason events.
Louie Dawson earned his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design from Western Washington University in 2014. When he’s not skiing Mount Baker or somewhere equally as snowy, he’s thinking about new products to make ski mountaineering more fun and safe.
