Presidents weekend 2007

After some thought about weather Cort, Frank, Brynn and myself decided to head to the eastern side of the cascades in Washington to the Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. The initial plan was to climb the North Buttress Couloir of Colchuck Peak. A huge step up for Cort but it would be a fun time. The plan was to skin the 8 miles into Colchuck lake set camp and climb Sunday and ski out Monday. Good long days but fun. Well sat we had spring like weather (me in shorts) and the skin in proved to be a bit tiring for some in our group while packing in all the gear needed for an overnight and climb. So the next morning after the weather turned nasty the during the night we decided to skin Colchuck Glacier and summit Colchuck from the West. Skinning across the lake was neat and a bit scary (over thinking on thickness of ice). The weather was the same all day, clouds in and out and windy all day. It took a long time to reach the top of the glacier so we decided that was our summit for the day. The ski back to camp (just below the lake) was fun with mixed snow conditions. Once back at camp we prepped for 12 hours in tent after eating dinner and making water for the night. The wind kept at it all night and into the next day. I did not think we were going to be able to ski most of the way out due to the difficulty of the trail on the way in but to my surprise we were able to ski 95% of the way out. Cort was amazing. First time on skis this year and she skied great on Sunday even with tired legs and then to ski the trail out with a heavy pack. All I can say is WOW!!! Brynn and Frank were great partners for the trip. We all had fun but I think we all agree it was a LONG trip in every way and not being able to climb made the trip not quite worth all the effort. But it at least I got back in there and I do want to head back and do some climbing for sure.

Now for the photo onslaught, enjoy (to enlarge pic click on it).