My biggest fear about this hike was not going up Aasgard Pass, it was coming back down the pass.  I've been on some backpacking trips before where there's a long decline.  With the extra weight of the pack, it puts a lot of strain on your knees.  And given the harshness of this decline, I knew it would be a doozy. 

 

We were pretty fortunate to awake to a really nice, calm and thankfully dry morning on Saturday, our hours in the Enchantments Zone.  We got up pretty early (for us), fueled up, packed up and hit the trail by 9 AM.  We got to the pass by 10 am and were astounded that we passed so many people who hadn't gotten going just yet.  Usually we're the lazy ones.

 

I continued my timer-mania with my camera, trying to catch up on all the photos I could have taken earlier in our trip with both me and Jeff in them... had I only remembered the timer.  At the top of the pass we could see all the way up to Mount Baker, so I made sure to catch the photo ops when we could.  Maybe I was just delaying the inevitable.

 

And down we went... 2,200 feet decline in just one mile.  Our handy trekking poles saved the day again.  We were much more stable on the slippery & rock slidey steep trail.  Having 4 supports rather than just two legs really made the journey a lot easier.  There's just no way we could have done it without them.

 

We passed a lot of day hikers and a handful of backpackers who were on their way up to Aasgard.  On a beautiful Saturday, I guess the Aasgard back-door entrance to the Enchantments is really the only realistic way someone could get all the way up and back without camping.  I would NEVER recommend it, because we had such a hard time getting to Colchuck Lake on day 1, let alone combining that hike with Aasgard too?  Wow, these folks were intense.

 

After about 3-4 hours, we were back down to Colchuck Lake.  We did look for a camping spot to take our last night by the lake, but again, since it was a Saturday, all the good spots were taken. So we decided to tough out the last 4 or so miles to get to the trailhead.  And with that decision made we were allowed to start talking about the topic backpackers generally try to avoid... talking about what food they will eat when they are done.  Pizza and beer was ours by about 8pm that night in Leavenworth, and we got into Seattle by 11 pm.