I hadn’t been to the Indian Peaks Wilderness yet this summer, so when Steve posted a message at Fourteener World looking for a partner on Sunday I responded right away. However, I asked that we take the Navajo Glacier route up to the peaks and add in an ascent of the strange spire between them, Dickers Peck.
At 6:30a we were leaving the rapidly filling parking lot behind and seeing just a few other climbers on the trail and we worked our way past Long Lake towards Lake Isabelle with views of our objectives dominating the skyline.
I was a little worried that Dickers Peck was staying in the shade for so long, since the climbing there was rated 5.5 and would be the technical crux.
We decided that we’d first climb Apache Peak to hopefully allow the Peck to warm up a bit. Of course, we still needed to get up to the saddle. A couple hundred feet of talus hiking brought us closer to the Navajo Glacier.
Once on the edge of the “glacier” we got out our crampons and ice axes and started kicking steps upwards. The top 1.5 inches were soft snow, but hard re-frozen ice lurked underneath. Soft boots and aluminum crampons weren’t the best choice for the snow conditions, but we stuck to the lower-angled right side and eventually made it the saddle.
The use of the crampons and ice axes was short-lived today and they disappeared into packs. The route from here up Apache would be quick, so we ate and drank then cached our packs on the steep side of Dickers Peck in case marmots were lurking about.
I’d climbed Apache Peak last year, but via the Fair Glacier route on the other side of the mountain. The 3rd class scrambling from the saddle was fun, but short.
The wind was also blowing strongly across the ridge crest. We stayed on the lee side of the ridge in a few places, and leaned toward the west when we were exposed to the brunt of the gusts.
Once at the summit we quickly turned around and headed back to the pass. I was glad to see Dickers Peck was now getting some sunlight, but I was worried about the wind. Communicating through its shrieking would be difficult. As would safely managing the rappel off the summit.
We retrieved our gear and found a sheltered and sunny spot to gear up for the climb. Steve had only brought boots, and since this was my bright idea I got to lead in my approach shoes, which is exactly what I wanted. Still, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to leading in the howling wind on the cold north side of the spire.
I keep some light gloves on for the climb, and tried to climb quickly but with the cold rock and windy conditions I spent a lot of time double checking holds and moving slowly and carefully. Additionally, the route wandered a bit from the north to the west side so I didn’t want to place too much gear as rope drag would become unmanageable. The climbing up to the ledge went fairly well and then the short crack had to be ascended. I started up it but when I lifted my right leg to begin a gust nearly spun me around. I had to get back in position and wait for a bit of a lull then launch up the crack as quickly as I could.
From a slightly higher ledge above the crack I could see that I needed to step out into the wind on a good but very exposed foot hold. On a nice calm day this would have been easy. With a headwind the move was a little dicey and once around the corner I quickly slotted a cam to protect the final climbing to the top.
Below my heels I knew there was a lot of exposure, but I didn’t even look down as I scampered up to the summit and over the crest. Thankfully, the top was sloped and both in the sun and sheltered from the worst of the wind. I yelled down to Steve that I was off belay after clipping into the rappel anchor and then took in the slack.
Steve quickly climbed up and arrived ready to warm up his freezing fingers. Now the tricky part was getting down without the ends of the rappel rope getting tangled or caught on any rocks.
Since it was so windy, I couldn’t just toss down the ends like I’d normally do. They’d probably blow and wrap around the summit and get hung up on some protuberance. So I carefully stacked the two ends over a sling on each side of my harness and prepared to rappel while feeding the ropes out as I went. If I’d stacked them right then they should feed cleanly and not get knocked while I swayed in the breeze trying to work out the tangle.
Thankfully, the operation was a success and I was safely at the base of Dickers Peck with the ropes. Steve rappelled after me and we got lucky when pulling the rope that the wind didn’t catch it and get it stuck.
Steve had been carrying the rope up to this point, but the rack of gear was a little lighter so I switched with him for extra ballast. Originally, I’d wanted to climb the 5.2/5.4 North Face/Ridge route on Navajo Peak, but in this wind I didn’t want to deal with the ropes again. So we switched plans and headed for the West Chimney route. It would be exposed to the wind but only class 4.
The route had some nice scrambling and we found a wind break just below the summit to recoup. Then we descended the sunny south side of the peak before heading north down the loose Airplane Gully.
Once past the airplane wreckage we could relax a little and out of the wind it quickly heated up. Soon we picked up the trail from the Isabelle glacier and followed it down back to the trailhead.
To finish off the day we decided to take a quick side trip to Tungsten Mountain, a peak below 9,000 feet but with a nice view from its grassy summit.
