Articles

Two Tales on Navaho

Overview

Trip Stats:
Time: 9 Hours
Date: May 23, 2010
Distance: 13.2 Miles
Who Came: Eastking, Curtissimo, Mtn. Climber, ONELUV1, Jimbopo, and I
Destinations: Navaho Peak and Little Navaho
Elevation gain: 4,100 Feet
Max Hieght: 7,200 Feet on Navaho

The trip started out us all meeting together at the Issaquah Parking Ride, although we met Mtn. Climber at the trailhead. When we got to the East side the weather was much better than the west. Unfortunately we all knew that this clear weather would not last long, so we hit the trail around 9 a.m. Curtissimo was working up quiet a pace, I had to jog to keep up with him which was hard on my shins, and some how the start for me was the hardest part of the trip.


 


 
     


 
     


The Crux for me
 
Edit/refresh captions The Crux for me
   

Curtissimo soon slowed down, and the pace was decent by this point. As we went further and further through the valley the weather took a turn, it started to snow, which was no suprise to me, infact the conditions were much better than I had anticipated.


 
 
         

The trail by this point was nowhere to be found, so we had to navigate a little to get up to the ridge, and figure out which peak was Navaho. I'll admit most of us did not believe Eastking when he said it was the tree covered one, but eventually we all realized he was right that it was.


Break Time
 
Navaho
 
Break Time
 
Navaho
   


Looking South of Us
Looking South of Us

Then we traversed east to get onto the ridge of Navaho. Views of the Enchanments opened up, but soon got foggy. After a few moments things cleared up, which I was amazed at how long views cleared up for.


 
     


Crevasse
Crevasse


Navaho Again
 
Ice Break up
 
Ok, there were not acual crevasses, just snow cracks
Navaho Again
 
Ice Break up
 
Ok, there were not acual crevasses, just snow cracks


 
Michael Behind me
 
Looking Towards the Enchanments
   
Michael Behind me
 
Looking Towards the Enchanments


 
 
The Ridge Behind Us
       
The Ridge Behind Us


 
 
         


 
     


The Enchanment Range
The Enchanment Range


Foggy Enchanments
Foggy Enchanments

The Summit Ridge was nice, when Mount Stuart came out of the clouds it kept stealing my attention. As I near The group, I ask "Is this the summit?" Eastking replied "no its four more miles". I thought "oh man!", but fortunately he was kidding. Soon I too was on the summit.


 
 
         


Mount Stuart in Clouds
 
 
Mount Stuart in Clouds
       


Looking East
 
Beautiful Mount Stuart
 
Looking West
Looking East
 
Beautiful Mount Stuart
 
Looking West


Our Crew (excluding me)
 
Me with Mount Stuart
 
Feeling cold with Stuart
Our Crew (excluding me)
 
Me with Mount Stuart
 
Feeling cold with Stuart


Taking a nice Look
 
Us together on the Summit (Taken by Michael)
 
Taking a nice Look
 
Us together on the Summit (Taken by Michael)
   


 


Summit Panorama
Summit Panorama

We took some quick photos, had some food, and of course put on more clothes because it was freezing up there. It was now time for part two of the trip, Little Navaho. We decended the ridge in very good time, avoiding the cornice to our left. Towards the bottom there was a bit of class 2 loose rock we had to be careful of. As we went down we got caught in a storm I knew was unavoidable, it was now snowing with some winds. When we got to the bottom I must of had 100 pebbles in my boots so I had to get them out.  lol.gif


 
Ingalls Peaks
 
Heading Down
   
Ingalls Peaks
 
Heading Down


Eastking Heading out
 
Looking towards Little Navaho
 
Eastking Heading out
 
Looking towards Little Navaho
   


Looking Down
 
Looking back at the Scramble
 
Getting ready
Looking Down
 
Looking back at the Scramble
 
Getting ready


By this point I became quite cold, but felt better once I had my jacket on (my armor). The place became enchanting quite fast, you really felt like you were mountaineering by this point. The snow got inside my pack fast too when grabbing my jacket. Heading up to Little Navaho for most of us was the funnest part of the trip.  up.gif  up.gif After heading up a ways through the storm things calmed down, and soon we got to our next summit.


Getting Snowed
 
Eastking Leading the Way
 
Getting Snowed
 
Eastking Leading the Way
   


 
Michael heading up to the Summit
   
Michael heading up to the Summit

Although we got a sunclearing, there was no view from the top, atleast earlier's views were enough to satisfy us. On the way down there were some nice glassades.  cool.gif We went down a snowed over creek to get towards the bottom, followed a rocky ridge, and to my amazement found the trail!


Mtn. Climber
 
Looking East
 
Curtis Glassading
Mtn. Climber
 
Looking East
 
Curtis Glassading


Curt Heading Down
Curt Heading Down

From here on out we got to do some trail jogging to get down, although after a while it began to feel longer than what I had remembered, but don't most peaks do that?  wink.gif We arrived around the trailhead at 6 p.m.
This proved to be an awesome choice for a hike, hope next weekends will be atleast as good if not better!


Taking a last look
 
Trail Running
Taking a last look
 
Trail Running

FaceBook Comments