OTHER Trip Report 09/07/2017

Peak(s):	Iroquois - 12799
Date Posted:	09/07/2017
Modified:	08/01/2022
Date Climbed:	09/03/2017
Author:	Nathan Hoobler
Additional Members:	Tommy Dorr

Secret Passage to Iroquois
In his book Indian Peaks: Classic Hikes and Climbs, Gerry Roach reserves some of his choicest praise for an unnamed, obscure summit between Lone Eagle Cirque and Arapaho Creek. When describing the route on "Iroquois," he says, "The best view in the Indian Peaks awaits you on the summit" and "This is one of the most remote climbs in the Indian Peaks" and "If you are looking for solitude, this is it" and "This is the most pristine place in the Indian Peaks" and "Hold onto your hat" and "The view will knock your socks off." That's a lot of superlatives to describe one route so naturally, I had a fair amount of curiosity when paging through the book and stumbling upon those pages. There's not a lot of information online about Iroquois and most of what you can find is connected to the Mohling Traverse, a rarely repeated epic scramble/climb that's well beyond the reach of mere mortals like me. There's also very little information about the approach to the peak and the mysterious "Wheeler Basin" that's the key to finding the route either. When our Labor Day plans changed due to a seemingly nasty forecast in the San Juans, I called the very helpful people at the Sulphur Ranger District to see if there were any overnight permits left for the Indian Peaks for the next weekend. Considering that the Indian Peaks are one of the most popular backpacking areas in Colorado and this was a few days before Labor Day, the backpackers' equivalent of football fans' Super Bowl, I knew this was a long shot. The helpful Forest Service workers told me that the only permits left across all of the wilderness zones were a handful for Arapaho Creek. In the back of my mind, I knew Arapaho Creek sounded familiar. After studying my map and paging through the Indian Peaks book, a light went on. Ah, yes. The Arapaho Pass Trail is the threshold to Roach's fabled "Iroquois." I quickly called Sulphur Ranger District back and grabbed a camping permit for the area for all of Labor Day weekend. Through the trip report below, I'm hoping to share about our trip as well as give others looking to find the route to Iroquois a little more information...and perhaps a few helpful GPS waypoints. On Friday morning, we began by hiking on the Arapaho Pass Trail from Monarch Lake Trailhead. The trail is very well-maintained and comfortable hiking. It's easy to blast through some miles when the trail is well-built and gradual. Apparently, portions of this trail used to be an old road, which probably explains why it was such easy hiking. Though it was eight miles of backpacking, it felt like a lot less. Coyote Park Coyote Park is a great location for a base camp. It's within striking distance of Iroquois, but still on a main trail, so you don't have to bushwhack with a full backpack. On Saturday, we hiked up past Arapaho Pass and climbed the North Ridge of Mount Neva. There is plenty of information about Mount Neva online so I won't go into great detail on that route here. Except to say that the best descent from the summit of Neva is not down the Phoebe couloir. And also: It's a fairly easy descent from Caribou Pass directly to Caribou Lake via game trails and a little route finding. After the Mount Neva climb, we decided to do a little scouting for our attempt at Iroquois the next day. In his Indian Peaks guidebook, Roach notes two ways to get to "Lost Tribe Lakes," which are key landmarks on the way to Iroquois. You can climb a steep mile directly from the Arapaho Pass Trail, a "difficult bushwhack requiring a lot of effort and route-finding." Or you can "follow a rough trail 1.0 mile to 10,500 feet in Wheeler Basin." There's not much information about how to find this rough trail in Roach's book and it's not at all obvious when you're on the Arapaho Pass trail how to find this side path into the mysterious Wheeler Basin. I had found some beta about the "rough trail" on MountainLake.com: http://www.mountainlake.com/mlp/perm/wb20.htm Not only did this website add to the adventure by making Wheeler an exciting destination all on it's own, it provided the key to finding passage into it. The way to find what Roach describes as a "rough trail" was laid out in detail on MountainLake. For those looking to climb Iroquois and looking for the best route, I'll add some information. From a camp in Coyote Park, go perhaps 1/3 of a mile downhill (back toward Monarch Lake) and note that the stream is quite close on the right (north) side of the trail. After you move away from the creek a little bit (and a few minutes after you pass an inconspicuous "7" marked on one of the trees), you'll come to the GPS waypoint marked "Leave Arapaho" on the map below. At that point, turn right (north) and bushwhack down the hill to the creek. Look for a small waterfall with a piece of easy-to-miss blue tape on a nearby tree. This is waypoint "Arapaho Creek Crossing." Leaving the Arapaho Pass Trail When we crossed the stream, it was a fairly rough area and finding a distinct trail seemed dubious. Still, we headed north and, after a hiking few hundred yards and crossing several granite slabs, we found evidence of a faint trail. Following this trail down and north-northwest, it soon became stronger. We decided that we had found the secret passage into Wheeler Basin and retreated to sleep for the night and head for Iroquois the next day. On Sunday, we quickly woke, grabbed our daypacks, and retraced our steps on the way to Wheeler Basin and (we hoped) Iroquois. The waypoints marked "Find Trail" and "Trail Continues" are where we were able to start following a stronger and stronger trail toward Wheeler Park. We later learned that the trail from Wheeler Basin actually continues all the way back to Coyote Park itself, but it becomes hard to follow past the point marked "Find Trail" due to a particularly nasty section of deadfall. Nasty deadfall on the old trail into Wheeler Basin �Anyway, we were now well on our way. Waypoint "Wheeler Creek Crossing 1" is where the trail first crosses this stream and is a good point to aim at if you miss the earlier milestones. After this point, the trail becomes even easier to follow as it switchbacks up the hill northwest of the stream. Soon enough, it comes to "Wheeler Creek Crossing 2." This is where we left the trail and headed about due north toward the ridge between Wheeler Basin and Lost Tribes Lake. We expected the bushwhack up this ridge to be arduous and difficult, but the forest was open enough that it wasn't that bad. In fact, it got easier as it went along and soon led to a small, beautiful basin near the top of the ridge. Our route is shown on the map below, with the waypoints "Basin" and "Ridge Crest." Entering the basin of Lost Tribe Lakes At the top of the ridge, we needed to get to Lost Tribe Lakes. Since the contour lines weren't very close, we were surprised to find that north side of this small ridge was rather cliffy. However, we were able to find a convenient ledge that soon led us to easier ground near the coveted lake. This photo looks back on the short section between Point 11306 and the lake. Finally we had arrived at Lost Tribe Lake and it was just as pristine and beautiful as expected. Indeed it would be a fantastic camping location if you could deal with carrying a backpack all the way there (and, you know, disturbing the pristine-ity of it all). After a few minutes to enjoy the lake and have a snack, we studied the route ahead. Here's where Roach's description gets a bit more detailed and the route gets a little more straightforward. From the lake, there is an obvious headwall to the north. You can go around it to the right (east) or left (west). We went up to climber's left and down to climber's right. Both are doable, but the left is probably better (and less marshy). Two ways around the headwall above the lake. After a little easy class 3 scrambling / class 2 hiking, you are soon above the headwall and looking directly at the south face of Iroquois. From here, the most obvious features are the grassy gully on the left, the large cliffs in the center, and the big, junky-looking gully on the right. Apparently the gully on the right can work when filled with snow, but we stayed well away from it on our trek. Instead, we ascended the grass-filled gully which was mostly pleasant and stable enough. Around 13,000, we followed cairns that left the gully and headed right (east) on ledges. This deposited us on a steep talus field above the lower cliffs. Most of the talus field was pretty stable with decent-size boulders, but there were also plenty of them that moved. It's largely "choose your own adventure" through here and just keep heading up. We finally reached the ridge just west (left) of the summit and headed toward the highpoint. Since Roach had made much of this peak, we were getting pretty excited to finally stand on the top. We were also tightening our helmets and lacing up our boots to avoid having our hats and socks knocked off by the view. Though our clothes stayed firmly in place, the summit did not disappoint. Since the skyline was approaching, we could tell that there was a dramatic drop on the far side. As we slowly approached the edge, we realized we were at the pinnacle of the ridge that extended up from Lone Eagle Peak. We were on the summit of the legendary Iroquis! The summit block is actually barely balancing over hundreds of feet of air and there was no way that either of us were going to stand on the top. Just reaching out to touch it made my heart beat quickly. It was hard to watch whenever Tommy was near the edge because I'm always uncomfortable with seeing other people unroped near precipices. The views of Lone Eagle, Fair Glacier, Hopi, and elsewhere were simply amazing. This photo simply doesn't communicate how scary the summit is. The summit block and the one next to it are leaning precariously over the edge. Looking down at Lone Eagle Peak. We checked out the summit register and found that it was placed last September and no one had signed it since. Does this picture communicate the exposure? Or perhaps this one does? Then it was time to head down. We largely reversed the route until we got near Lost Tribes Lake. The important thing is to watch for cairns back into the gully on skiers' right (climbers' left) to avoid getting too close to the cliffs at the bottom of the upper talus field. Near the lakes, we decided to peek into Upper Wheeler Basin from the waypoint Basin View. The view above the basin It's truly a remarkable place and we even found an old mine entrance filled with ancient equipment. The old mine We then decided to head down into Wheeler Basin from this side. Though it ended up working out, I can't recommend this route. We had to pass several cliffy sections and saw a lot of very fresh bear scat. Thankfully, we safely made it down into Wheeler Basin and soon headed back to the Arapaho Pass Trail...but not before surprising a cow moose and her calf. A moose and calf If you're headed down from Iroquois, I would recommend reversing the route that we climbed instead of the route we took down. Iroquois is certainly a worthwhile destination if you have the time. Hopefully, the information here will make the journey a little easier, but still mysterious and exciting. My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload): Login required to view this map... Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Secret Passage to Iroquois

In his book Indian Peaks: Classic Hikes and Climbs, Gerry Roach reserves some of his choicest praise for an unnamed, obscure summit between Lone Eagle Cirque and Arapaho Creek. When describing the route on "Iroquois," he says, "The best view in the Indian Peaks awaits you on the summit" and "This is one of the most remote climbs in the Indian Peaks" and "If you are looking for solitude, this is it" and "This is the most pristine place in the Indian Peaks" and "Hold onto your hat" and "The view will knock your socks off." That's a lot of superlatives to describe one route so naturally, I had a fair amount of curiosity when paging through the book and stumbling upon those pages. There's not a lot of information online about Iroquois and most of what you can find is connected to the Mohling Traverse, a rarely repeated epic scramble/climb that's well beyond the reach of mere mortals like me. There's also very little information about the approach to the peak and the mysterious "Wheeler Basin" that's the key to finding the route either.

When our Labor Day plans changed due to a seemingly nasty forecast in the San Juans, I called the very helpful people at the Sulphur Ranger District to see if there were any overnight permits left for the Indian Peaks for the next weekend. Considering that the Indian Peaks are one of the most popular backpacking areas in Colorado and this was a few days before Labor Day, the backpackers' equivalent of football fans' Super Bowl, I knew this was a long shot. The helpful Forest Service workers told me that the only permits left across all of the wilderness zones were a handful for Arapaho Creek. In the back of my mind, I knew Arapaho Creek sounded familiar. After studying my map and paging through the Indian Peaks book, a light went on. Ah, yes. The Arapaho Pass Trail is the threshold to Roach's fabled "Iroquois." I quickly called Sulphur Ranger District back and grabbed a camping permit for the area for all of Labor Day weekend.

Through the trip report below, I'm hoping to share about our trip as well as give others looking to find the route to Iroquois a little more information...and perhaps a few helpful GPS waypoints.

On Friday morning, we began by hiking on the Arapaho Pass Trail from Monarch Lake Trailhead. The trail is very well-maintained and comfortable hiking. It's easy to blast through some miles when the trail is well-built and gradual. Apparently, portions of this trail used to be an old road, which probably explains why it was such easy hiking. Though it was eight miles of backpacking, it felt like a lot less.

Coyote Park

Coyote Park is a great location for a base camp. It's within striking distance of Iroquois, but still on a main trail, so you don't have to bushwhack with a full backpack. On Saturday, we hiked up past Arapaho Pass and climbed the North Ridge of Mount Neva. There is plenty of information about Mount Neva online so I won't go into great detail on that route here. Except to say that the best descent from the summit of Neva is not down the Phoebe couloir. And also: It's a fairly easy descent from Caribou Pass directly to Caribou Lake via game trails and a little route finding.

After the Mount Neva climb, we decided to do a little scouting for our attempt at Iroquois the next day. In his Indian Peaks guidebook, Roach notes two ways to get to "Lost Tribe Lakes," which are key landmarks on the way to Iroquois. You can climb a steep mile directly from the Arapaho Pass Trail, a "difficult bushwhack requiring a lot of effort and route-finding." Or you can "follow a rough trail 1.0 mile to 10,500 feet in Wheeler Basin." There's not much information about how to find this rough trail in Roach's book and it's not at all obvious when you're on the Arapaho Pass trail how to find this side path into the mysterious Wheeler Basin.

I had found some beta about the "rough trail" on MountainLake.com:

http://www.mountainlake.com/mlp/perm/wb20.htm

Not only did this website add to the adventure by making Wheeler an exciting destination all on it's own, it provided the key to finding passage into it. The way to find what Roach describes as a "rough trail" was laid out in detail on MountainLake. For those looking to climb Iroquois and looking for the best route, I'll add some information. From a camp in Coyote Park, go perhaps 1/3 of a mile downhill (back toward Monarch Lake) and note that the stream is quite close on the right (north) side of the trail. After you move away from the creek a little bit (and a few minutes after you pass an inconspicuous "7" marked on one of the trees), you'll come to the GPS waypoint marked "Leave Arapaho" on the map below. At that point, turn right (north) and bushwhack down the hill to the creek. Look for a small waterfall with a piece of easy-to-miss blue tape on a nearby tree. This is waypoint "Arapaho Creek Crossing."

Leaving the Arapaho Pass Trail

When we crossed the stream, it was a fairly rough area and finding a distinct trail seemed dubious. Still, we headed north and, after a hiking few hundred yards and crossing several granite slabs, we found evidence of a faint trail. Following this trail down and north-northwest, it soon became stronger. We decided that we had found the secret passage into Wheeler Basin and retreated to sleep for the night and head for Iroquois the next day.

On Sunday, we quickly woke, grabbed our daypacks, and retraced our steps on the way to Wheeler Basin and (we hoped) Iroquois. The waypoints marked "Find Trail" and "Trail Continues" are where we were able to start following a stronger and stronger trail toward Wheeler Park. We later learned that the trail from Wheeler Basin actually continues all the way back to Coyote Park itself, but it becomes hard to follow past the point marked "Find Trail" due to a particularly nasty section of deadfall.

Nasty deadfall on the old trail into Wheeler Basin

�Anyway, we were now well on our way. Waypoint "Wheeler Creek Crossing 1" is where the trail first crosses this stream and is a good point to aim at if you miss the earlier milestones. After this point, the trail becomes even easier to follow as it switchbacks up the hill northwest of the stream. Soon enough, it comes to "Wheeler Creek Crossing 2." This is where we left the trail and headed about due north toward the ridge between Wheeler Basin and Lost Tribes Lake.

We expected the bushwhack up this ridge to be arduous and difficult, but the forest was open enough that it wasn't that bad. In fact, it got easier as it went along and soon led to a small, beautiful basin near the top of the ridge. Our route is shown on the map below, with the waypoints "Basin" and "Ridge Crest."

Entering the basin of Lost Tribe Lakes

At the top of the ridge, we needed to get to Lost Tribe Lakes. Since the contour lines weren't very close, we were surprised to find that north side of this small ridge was rather cliffy. However, we were able to find a convenient ledge that soon led us to easier ground near the coveted lake.

This photo looks back on the short section between Point 11306 and the lake.

Finally we had arrived at Lost Tribe Lake and it was just as pristine and beautiful as expected. Indeed it would be a fantastic camping location if you could deal with carrying a backpack all the way there (and, you know, disturbing the pristine-ity of it all). After a few minutes to enjoy the lake and have a snack, we studied the route ahead. Here's where Roach's description gets a bit more detailed and the route gets a little more straightforward. From the lake, there is an obvious headwall to the north. You can go around it to the right (east) or left (west). We went up to climber's left and down to climber's right. Both are doable, but the left is probably better (and less marshy).

Two ways around the headwall above the lake.

After a little easy class 3 scrambling / class 2 hiking, you are soon above the headwall and looking directly at the south face of Iroquois. From here, the most obvious features are the grassy gully on the left, the large cliffs in the center, and the big, junky-looking gully on the right. Apparently the gully on the right can work when filled with snow, but we stayed well away from it on our trek. Instead, we ascended the grass-filled gully which was mostly pleasant and stable enough.

Around 13,000, we followed cairns that left the gully and headed right (east) on ledges. This deposited us on a steep talus field above the lower cliffs. Most of the talus field was pretty stable with decent-size boulders, but there were also plenty of them that moved. It's largely "choose your own adventure" through here and just keep heading up.

We finally reached the ridge just west (left) of the summit and headed toward the highpoint. Since Roach had made much of this peak, we were getting pretty excited to finally stand on the top. We were also tightening our helmets and lacing up our boots to avoid having our hats and socks knocked off by the view. Though our clothes stayed firmly in place, the summit did not disappoint. Since the skyline was approaching, we could tell that there was a dramatic drop on the far side. As we slowly approached the edge, we realized we were at the pinnacle of the ridge that extended up from Lone Eagle Peak. We were on the summit of the legendary Iroquis!

The summit block is actually barely balancing over hundreds of feet of air and there was no way that either of us were going to stand on the top. Just reaching out to touch it made my heart beat quickly. It was hard to watch whenever Tommy was near the edge because I'm always uncomfortable with seeing other people unroped near precipices. The views of Lone Eagle, Fair Glacier, Hopi, and elsewhere were simply amazing.

This photo simply doesn't communicate how scary the summit is.

The summit block and the one next to it are leaning precariously over the edge.

Looking down at Lone Eagle Peak.

We checked out the summit register and found that it was placed last September and no one had signed it since.

Does this picture communicate the exposure?

Or perhaps this one does?

Then it was time to head down. We largely reversed the route until we got near Lost Tribes Lake. The important thing is to watch for cairns back into the gully on skiers' right (climbers' left) to avoid getting too close to the cliffs at the bottom of the upper talus field. Near the lakes, we decided to peek into Upper Wheeler Basin from the waypoint Basin View.

The view above the basin

It's truly a remarkable place and we even found an old mine entrance filled with ancient equipment.

The old mine

We then decided to head down into Wheeler Basin from this side. Though it ended up working out, I can't recommend this route. We had to pass several cliffy sections and saw a lot of very fresh bear scat. Thankfully, we safely made it down into Wheeler Basin and soon headed back to the Arapaho Pass Trail...but not before surprising a cow moose and her calf.

A moose and calf

If you're headed down from Iroquois, I would recommend reversing the route that we climbed instead of the route we took down.

Iroquois is certainly a worthwhile destination if you have the time. Hopefully, the information here will make the journey a little easier, but still mysterious and exciting.

My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

CreekRunner	Exposure 9/9/2017 8:49pm That summit looks crazy. Thanks for sharing. This one is definitely on the short-ish list.
Agroeper	Awesome writeup! 7/31/2022 6:49pm Awesome send guys! Thanks for the great writeup! So helpful. Summited at sunrise on 7/31/2022 with my buddy, Hayden and my pup, Finn.

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