Irving Lake, Weminuche

[patrickfaust27]

Planning a trip to Irving, Hidden, and Lost Lakes in the Weminuche. I'm thinking of going up Vallecito and bushwacking to Irving then taking the pass above to Hidden and Lost. Does anyone have information on the approach to Irving Lake?

[9patrickmurphy]

https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=2 ... type=13ers

[cottonmountaineering]

ive done rock lake -> descend roell creek basin, visited lost lake. the descent to vallecito is very steep with lots of random cliffs/deadfall, i would be hesitant to go up that way. i think theres a hiking trail to moon lake, that might be a better approach to get in that area, or rock lake

[Chicago Transplant]

I went in for Irving from Moon Lake. There is a trail to Moon Lake, then I wrapped around to the west side of the lake, some talus on the SW side of the lake. It was pretty grassy until about the last 400 feet to the Oso-Soso saddle. Similar on the other side, drop about 400' to hit the grass. You can take those grassy slopes all the way to Irving Lake but I stayed higher, trying not to drop below 12k myself so I could get up to the ridge between Irving and North Irving. I traversed over to Oso but not at the ridge crest. The north side of the ridge towards Hidden and Lost seems pretty rough. The col between Oso and 12886 probably is your best bet to get to Lost Lake, probably could contour around the north side of PT 13030 (map elev) without much elevation gain/loss to get to Hidden?

[marksilas]

In 2012 I climbed Oso in a day from Vallecito TH. I found some information on a decent route, but I don't know where that info is. I went a little further up Vallecito Creek (than Boggy did) and followed Irving Creek up to Irving Lake. There was a faint trail that had a few cairns here and there. I'm pretty sure I stayed above the creek on the north side of the creek to avoid rough terrain. If you dig around some of these climbing websites you should be able to find the route description that I used. (I took light overnight gear and stashed it near the lake in case I ran out of energy, but I was able to finish the hike in daylight.)

[Boggy B]

In my defense I've never been up Irving Creek, only heard it was awful enough to produce the alternative I posted here.
There's so much variation in people's experience of "bushwhacking" it's almost pointless to relate.
I've received negative feedback on my route, which I didn't think was that bad.
Maybe Irving Creek is actually chill by Wemi standards?
EDIT: also the pass east of North Irving (accessed via a ledge system on the south side) should go to Hidden, and the pass west of Oso looks even easier.

[Marmot72]

Peaks are my primary goal, with lakes being the ornaments en route. When I climbed Irving Peak with rest of the Oso group, we went in Rock Lake from Hunchback pass. Rock Lake affords gorgeous views and a good trail goes up above the bench to the south- from there, you have beautiful and pretty easy terrain of mixed bedrock, tundra, and slabs. You could contour around Nebo to get to Irving lake.

[mindfolded]

ive done rock lake -> descend roell creek basin, visited lost lake. the descent to vallecito is very steep with lots of random cliffs/deadfall, i would be hesitant to go up that way. i think theres a hiking trail to moon lake, that might be a better approach to get in that area, or rock lake

Rock & Roell