[TR] Enchantment's Tour - Cannon and Prusik 6/8/2010

[scottgg]

Trip: Enchantment's Tour - Cannon and Prusik

 

Date: 6/8/2010

 

Trip Report:

Dang I miss this place! Just got back to the East Coast after spending 10 days in Washington visiting friends, eating good food, and drinking large quantities of coffee. We took full advantage of the two sunny days during our brief visit, and were reminded why this is the best part of the country. Our second sunny day, we took my dad's boat out in the Puget Sound, driving from Edmonds to Langley for breakfast and admiring the beautiful peaks rising above the low lands. Then Becky and I climbed at Index for a few hours in the afternoon before getting together with friends for a bbq. A perfect day in the PNW!

 

The other sunny day was Tuesday, July 8th. My sister Becky and I decided a trip to the Enchantments was in order, with Prusik Peak being the goal. But how to approach? I’ve always preferred hiking in via Asguard Pass because of the better scenery, though this time I wanted to try something new.

 

 

A quick glance over the USGS map showed that approaching from Cannon Mountain may be feasible, and Google confirmed this. Thus the plan was to hike up Cannon Mountain via the North Gully, descend across the Druid Plateau to Prusik Pass, climb the West Ridge of Prusik, hike up through the still frozen Enchantment Lakes, down Asguard Pass and back to the trailhead. Aside from some occasional soft snow (we didn’t bring snowshoes or skis), thing went really well. We only ran into one other party the whole day, a group of 5 climbing Prusik.

 

Shortly after heading uphill past the old road washout

 

Halfway up the North Gully

 

View from near the top of the gully

 

Same view on Google Earth

 

Heading up gully above Coney Lake

 

Summit o' Cannon

 

West Ridge of Prusik

 

 

 

Heading Home

 

Becky did an awesome job on this tour: from leading her first trad pitch to breaking trail though soft snow. I was starting to boink on the way to Prusik Pass, and Beck had no problem taking the lead up the sun-cooked snow.

This was a fun early-season route up Cannon, and a very cool way to access the Enchantments. We weren’t trying to move particularly fast, so here is what you might encounter in terms of times:

1:00 to climb the North Gully

6:45 from trailhead to the top of Cannon (8,638’)

1:15 from the top of Cannon to Prusik Pass

 

[Serenity]

Nicely done.

[goatboy]

Nice touch, integrating Google Earth in the TR. Not to mention, a creative approach to a popular objective. Thanks!

[dennyt]

Awesome, I saw your tracks from Prusik and wondered who was taking the scenic route

[kevino]

Looks a lot better than when its not covered in snow!

[Spore]

Looks like you had a good time its a fun little hike, did close to the same route last fall, but gained the "Elf Ridge" from Coney after spending the night there with the kid.

[Le Piston]

I had considered this very approach for Prusik several years ago, but ended up doing the Aasgard pass grind. Fun climb eh? Thanks for the pictures and TR!

[Marko]

Very cool Gullbergs; glad you got to the hills on your visit!

[spotly]

I like the creative approach. When I did Cannon last year, I didn't see an easy way across that lower slide. We went straight up the ridge from where you have the map marked. Is there a path that traverses through that?

[SmilingWhiteKnuckles]

Nice going Gullbergs! Thanks for posting all the cool pics. Hoping to get in there soon!