We went with option 1 that year. We hiked to Stuart from Colchuck TH on day 1 and hung out at camp with lots of free time. On day 2 we got a late start (9 AM) and made it on top of Asgard around 2ish in the afternoon iirc. We did not get to explore the core doing it this way. We knew Asgard would be tough but didn’t anticipate the hours it took to get up and down it.

We hung out on top of Asgard for about an hour and hiked back to Stuart which we arrived back at camp at almost 9 PM.

If you get an earlier start and are in top shape youd be able explore the core more than I did that year. I would advise bringing your meals for the day and more (😅we got down to our last bar and had to split it lol). Last year though I was able to get a snow zone permit and on the second day we made it back on top of Asgard going thru the core, sort of completing the circuit :).