Isabelle Glacier/Queens Way Conditions?

Greetings fellow adventure seekers,

Is anyone in the know as to the conditions of Queens Way in the Indian Peaks at this time of the season? Is anything left after the summer thaw? I am looking to take a friend out to practice snow climbing at a location that isn't too serious.

Thanks for any beta

I was up there at the end of June, and I can bet that Queen's way probably isn't in. That being said there was snow back probably over mile back from Isabelle and the crossing near the lake was fine, but of course this was 2 months of 90 degree weather.

In my opinion Queens way isn't really a place to "practice". Isabelle is perfect, but if you fall on Queen's you're taking the ride. It sits above a very large cliff face, and I believe from reports that the glaciers are making their transition over to hard snow / ice.

Navajo will probably still be good as well, but it get's steep fast. Just to play around maybe St. Mary's Glacier or Isabelle would be a better idea. You can see from the second and third photos that Queen's way pretty thin as of 6/24.

Cool, thanks for the reply and photos. I hadn't considered Apache snow field either... The snow is indeed getting hard, with alpine ice in shady areas. Atleast this was the case when we made our way up Skyscraper Glacier this past Tuesday. Good for practice, although the steep top-out was pretty sketch.

Thanks, I'll bear these suggestions in mind.

Here is a picture from last Monday to give you an idea of the current conditions. Isabelle Glacier will still be a good place to practice this time of year.

Man it's been melting!!!

Great Photo. The Navaho Snowfield looks nice and sketch.