Climb: Temple Ridge-Nada Lake/Tamarack Meadows

Date of Climb: 4/17/2006

Trip Report:
Had a 3 day weekend and decided to head out and play in the Enchanments area. My original plan was to go up and over the ridge and down around Temple lake and out by Snow Lake, but of course things happen. Headed up the snow creek trail around 11:30am, the trail is clear of snow to about 2500', just before reaching the trees below Snowcreek Wall. I saw 2 guys on there way to the base, they had a great day to climb. The snow had a nice firm crust under about an inch or so of soft snow. I carried the snowshoes and never once put them on, didn't need anything for the approach hike. Looks like most of the snow on the upper rock faces has all fallen off, lots of avy debris. I reached Nada Lake in about 4.5 hrs after a slight navigation delay. Once that sun went down the temp dropped all the way to about 20 at sunrise. Started making my brew for the am and ran out of fuel...oops, wrong canister to bring can't exactly melt water for another 1 1/2 days. The firm crust from the day before was even firmer with all the radiation cooling from the clear skies. Made for great hiking up to the meadows and the rest of the way to Temple ridge. My crampons barely broke the crust and I hardly saw my boot track on the way back. Nice sunny day with a quick decent and some time to check out how all the crags looked. There was a group on Careno and two groups on Icicle Buttress, and a few scattered around on a few other crags.
All in all a nice early season outing. Sorry, no pictures

Gear Notes:
more fuel and food!!!
carried snowshoes, didn't need them

Thanks for the report; kinda gives an overall idea of the area.