At Aasgard Pass, the pain and the payoff are all about elevation

“Watch out!”

I looked up upon hearing my husband’s voice to see a hunk of granite tumbling toward my friend Michelle Dunlop and I.

We stepped apart as quickly as we could on the unstable slope, and the rock rolled between us.

“Watch out! Rock! Heads!” We all yelled to the two hikers below us.

The hikers looked up, watching the rock bouncing downhill on a path to roll neatly between them.

Then the rock took a huge bounce, crashed down, split in two, and each half headed for a hiker.

The first man stepped neatly aside. The second had less room to maneuver. The rock bounced toward his chest. In a moment he appeared to tackle it like a rugby player.

I watched nervously until he stood up, clearly unhurt, and both hikers hollered up that, yes, they were OK.

The ascent up Aasgard Pass into the Enchantments in the Alpine Lake Wilderness has a well-deserved reputation for being difficult and possibly dangerous. In less than a mile, the hiker gains 2,230 feet in elevation.

Aasgard Pass is kind of a back door into the Enchantments. We hiked up to Colchuck Lake, a pretty little lake with a stunning view up the pass.

Our plan was to stay overnight at Colchuck, and then take a day trip up the pass without our heavy packs.

The hike up to Colchuck Lake is pleasant. It’s a gentle climb for about 2.5 miles, with a decent amount of shade. Then the trail climbs more steeply to the lake. Campsites dot the area around the lake.

We found our campsite, a perfectly concealed flat spot protected by large boulders, thanks to a ranger who was passing by. It always pays to talk to the rangers.

We ate dinner that night on a huge flat rock about 20 feet from our camp. We watched the lake grow dark and headed to bed early.

The next morning we woke up early, ate a quick breakfast and headed up the pass. The trail is easy enough to find at the start, as it winds through brush.

Then, it turns into a steep climb over rocks. There is trail part of the way up, but since a lot of it is over rock, you have to watch for cairns, large piles of rock markers, to find your way.

We made it up the pass very slowly. The route is somewhere between a hike and scramble, and we were glad to not be carrying heavy packs, although we saw many backpackers fully loaded.

Once we finally reached the top, all the hiking was worth it. The Enchantments live up to their name.

It was early July, and the warm days had cleared away much of the snow. The trek around the lakes was easy. There’s not much elevation change between the lakes. You just drop down slowly past them.

We stopped to watch two hikers jump in one of the lakes. Half of it was still covered in ice, but that didn’t deter them.

We caught up with them later and realized it was the pair who had narrowly missed the rolling rock.

Nicholas Wenzel of Olympia and Adam Nelson of Seattle were still in good spirits, and said the quick dip was a great way to get rid of any aches and pains.

They were on a day trip through the Enchantments, an 18-mile trek that my guide book fondly referred to as the “death march.”

Wenzel later said the trip took them from 5:30 a.m. 8:45 p.m.

We were on a much shorter hike, so we wandered and took in one stunning view after another — including Mount Baker and Mount Rainier.

The bold mountain goats were everywhere, including adorable babies. I had to remind myself that it is not OK to cuddle the kids.

Going down Aasgard Pass is worse than coming up. For that reason, many people hike up and go out the other side of the Enchantments. Our trip down took nearly as long as our trip up, and by the end we were all worn out.

We woke up slowly the next morning. The hike out from Colchuck Lake is leisurely. Once you get past the boulder field at the end of the lake, it’s a walk in the park compared to coming down Aasgard Pass.

When I got home, I pulled up all of the photos on my computer and quickly found one that I’d snapped of the setting sun lighting up the jagged peaks. The picture showed one of those glorious moments when everything seems to slow down.

Moments like that seem easier to find in wilderness.

Jessi Loerch: jloerch@heraldnet.com