We had permits to camp at Colchuck and our plan was to hike to the lake, set camp, hike up Aasgard in the morning, explore the core zone a bit and hike back down to camp (luckily without full packs), departing Friday morning.
We arrived at the Stuart Lake trailhead parking lot on Wednesday just before 2pm and there were still spots for overnight campers. The trail was in great shape with some slush/snow/ice as we neared the lake. We set up camp, enjoyed the stars which were absolutely beautiful and prepped for a very cold night. We did see the light of a headlamp coming down Aasgard around 7:30pm in the dark, it took them a couple hours but we did see their light nearing the bottom as we were heading to bed. The clear skies meant it was extra chilly, our group of three was prepared for the cold but it was still very difficult to stay warm.
We headed for Aasgard pass at 9am on Thursday, honestly crossing the boulder field covered in snow by the lake just before the pass was trickier than most of the ascent (and it took us almost an hour to get from our camp to the base of the pass). On the way up the trail was covered with a mix of snow and ice, the snow did get pretty deep in some areas and I was glad to have gaiters. As the last report mentioned, microspikes and poles are very necessary. The larches are still beautiful but losing their needles.
We made it up the pass in a coupe hours, but we were more concerned with what it would be like coming back down. We ended up taking a few photos from the top, and decided to start the descent to give ourselves lots of time. Going down was worse than hiking up, and some of the snow/ice towards the bottom was starting to melt. We got back to camp at 3:45pm and decided to pack up camp to avoid another very cold night knowing the trail would freeze again overnight. Coming down from Colchuck Thursday evening the trail was melting so covered in slush and mud but otherwise in good shape. We got back to our vehicle at 7:30pm.
My takeaways: it sounds obvious but the overnight temps were no joke, it was almost 50 degrees in Leavenworth when we got back into town and a fellow hiker told us it was supposed to feel like 12 degrees with wind up in the mountains (the main reason why we decided to pack up). Now that there's snow, following the trail up Aasgard isn't too bad since there are clear footprints, but that could change quickly. We were using AllTrails and I still found it helpful.
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