BETA PHOTO: Isabelle glacier cirque at sunrise. Nirvana.
Description
Navajo is on the Divide, about 2 mi north of N. Arapaho [Peak]
Navajo is the cone-shaped peak visible from Brainard Lake, just SE of Apache. The large snowfield below the right side of the peak is one of several good moderate snow routes on Navajo and Apache. Navajo has a small amount of low fifth class climbing on it's north face, and a separate 65ft 5.5 pinnacle below its north face called Dicker's Peck.
Getting There
The Brainard Lake Trailhead is off of Hwy 72 North on Nederland. It is a fee area, $6 per time, $25 season. There are two trailheads, the Long Lake side goes towards Navajo, the Mitchell Lake side goes towards Mt. Toll. These trailheads are at 10,500 feet.
I was just up there. There is ZERO snow in Airplane gully, you can climb it on scree. If you want to climb on snow you could use Navajo Snowfield, Apache Couloir, or Queen's Way.
Last Monday (17th June) I hiked to the glacier and saw two skiers/snowboarders headed up the Navajo Snowfield. 30 minutes later me and my friends saw a huge avalanche stress fracture right along their path and a second one on the opposite side of the field. The fracture lines stretched all the way to the bottom. Be advised.
This fracture was on the *Navajo* snowfield?! I was up there on 6/15 and 6/22 and didn't see any evidence of fracturing, old or new. The snow was very mature and consolidated. The N. Face is *great* route BTW!
By Peter Spindloe Administrator From: North Vancouver, BC Jul 21, 2003
The picture above shows the Navajo snowfield, not the Isabelle Glacier as the caption indicates.The Isabelle Glacier is off to the right, and not really visible until you hike up right of the trail to Navajo.
On the descent to the unnamed lake from Navajo, did anybody else notice the numbers and letters painted on the rocks to the right (east). Wussup wid dat?
Does anyone know the name of the couloir lookers left of Navajo's summit while coming from Brainard? I skied it yesterday and was wondering. Good corn snow one good short section with some ice in it and there is a nut/cam anchor to rap over this section for the descent if you don't want to jump it like my buddy Zack did. This section is the crux of this climb.
The airplane couloir. Its name comes from the DC-3 that met its end by crashing there. It use to be covered with its remains. When I was real young, you could see the reflection of the metal in the morning from highway 72.
Is the plane wreck gone? In the late 80s or early 90s there was still a BIG piece of the fuselage high in the couloir and a complete wing near the bottom that had caught a ride on an avalanche. If I can find my photos of the wreckage I’ll add them to the site.
The plane wreck was still there Oct of '05. It is set in the deep part of the couloir and wouldn't surprise me if it is not visible when snow fills in.
I couldn't see any wreckage when we sent it, so I would have to assume it was covered by snow. There was avalanche debris at the bottom of the couloir.
Does anyone know exact mileage from the trail head to Navajo's summit?
We were just on the summit yesterday, from halfway up the snowfield we saw 5 peices of what appeared to metal debris at the bottom of the couloir. We calculate the distance at around 9.2 miles.
Navajo Peak
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