Enchantments Tour
For one of the last trips of the year, I had my hopes on the east ridge of Inspiration Peak, Robert set his sights on Early Morning Spire. Thanks to the weather, Robert threw out the suggestion of “The Enchantments”. Oh yeah, I’d never been there, no like. Can you believe it? So, it was settled, we planned to go climb “The Mole”, and Prusik Peak, and maybe even Temple Ridge. I met Robert in Cashmere around 7:15 in the morning and we drove out to the ever popular Snow Creek trailhead prepared to go in “ninja style” with our day trip story. Our plan: Hike up to the Edwardian Plateau via the Toketie Creek trail, climb the Mole, sleep somewhere around Mesa Lake, hike to Prusik Pass the next day, climb Prusik Peak via the west ridge, see what else we were up for and then head out.
The first part of the Snow Creek trail always seems to go fast. “Wow, we’re already past Snow Creek Wall.” Maybe the high altitude of Colorado made me appreciate the oxygen, or maybe it was the large quantity of Thai food serving as fuel, but I was feeling good. Somewhere around a campsite that was just before a set of switchbacks (around 3200 feet), we left the trail and crossed Snow Creek aiming for the left side of a prominent talus patch to the south of Toketie Creek. We crossed some semi-sketchy bouncy downed tree crossings across the creek, or above a dangerous pit of strewn broken trees. Eventually, we were in the talus field, consisting of mostly very large boulders. We eventually found cairns and followed them as best we could until we found a dusty trail that went up and up and up always exposed to the hot sun.
After the trail finally relented some, we took a break, consulted the map, and then figured out the next part of the trail: a wide, steep slope of granite, a little brush and burned trees from the Rat Creek Fires. After we crested this slope, we were finally in the high country around Toketie Lake. We’d already lost and found the trail about ten times on the way up, and we probably lost and found it ten more times before arriving at Toketie Pass, just south and a little west of the Edwardian Plateau. There’s a tarn here created from snow melt where we decided to camp.
We packed up for a quick trip to the Mole, one of those rare summits that would be fun to tick off. The hike up to the plateau went quick, more hopping over boulders and a rough trail. Up on the plateau the trail vanished as we traveled through larch forest, then to a burn zone, and then to a small sandy desert. The Mole was just over the western edge. Getting to it was a bit of a pain…a steep sandy descent and a slippery sandy gully between it and the Duolith. I kinda wish we would have started the climb lower down, some of the cracks looked good, but we found the official started and roped up. Robert took the first pitch and headed off. This first pitch was good, with a solid fun 5.7 section right off the bat. Robert then traversed around a tree and up over some boulders, along a ledge, then up a small set of cracks. He belayed from there.
I think we may have gotten off route here and Robert opted to head out again in order to “make it right”. After realizing that a squeeze between the wall and a large boulder wouldn’t go, he down climbed about fifteen feet to a deep notch with an overhanging crack. Having already used some pro that would have been perfect for the crack, he opted for a balancy traverse that gained the notch above the crack. I followed, climbing the crack directly, finding it harder than 5.7, I’d call it 5.9. Above this, a steep flake system requiring liebacks led to where Robert was belaying on the ridge. I led out from here placing like two pieces on easy terrain that led to the summit. On top of the Mole, the Icicle looked far away, a totally miserable way to approach the Mole – I’m sure no one is dumb enough to approach from that direction.
We headed back down to our camp. This spot was great. The tarn had been warmed by the sun so cleanin’ up wasn’t a miserably cold experience. Also, there are tons of places to sleep on either dirt or granite. We picked the dirt for the extra layer of soft comfort it provided. The moon wasn’t out tonight, or was just hanging out behind a ridge somewhere, and the stars were out in spades.
Tags: Eduardian Plateau, Enchantments, The Mole, Toketie Creek
