Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Hidden Lake Peaks N and S
This is a premier spring scramble. The lollipop route we took offered grand views of jagged snowy mountains in all directions.
Carolyn Graham
- Sun, Jun 15, 2025
- Alpine Scramble - Hidden Lake Peaks
- Hidden Lake Lookout & Peak
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road recommended for high clearance only
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FR-1540 is a steep 1-lane gravel road that demands a high clearance vehicle with all-wheel or 4WD (my Toyota RAV4 was adequate). There are ~4 difficult areas, all located in the vicinity of the first right-hand switchback.
Party Size: 6
Gear used: ice axe, helmet, mountaineering boots, crampons, poles
8 AM - started hiking the Hidden Lake Trail
There was snow on the trail starting in the vicinity of East Fork Sibley Creek (~5400’ contour). The snow was well consolidated and continuous above us. We discussed 2 route options to get to Hidden Lake Peak N, our first objective of the day. The consensus was to take the “more adventurous” loop route described in Jerry Stein’s trip report from July 2, 2022, utilizing his gpx track from peakbagger as a guide.
After crossing East Fork Sibley Creek, we used crampons and ice axes to ascend uphill and trending right (SW) to the 6180’ col. From the here we had views of Forbidden, Sahale, and many others. We briefly followed the ridge crest in a southwesterly direction until we could easily traverse through some rocks and return to snow. We easily side hilled along the east side of the ridge on moderate snow slopes towards Hidden Lake Peak N. We crossed to the west side of Hidden Lake Peak N’s north ridge 100 yards or so prior to the summit block. There were some cornice remnants just beyond where we crossed over. At the summit block we took off crampons and enjoyed an easy rock scramble on nice rock (granite?) to the Hidden Lake Peak N summit.
12:20 PM to 12:50 PM: on Hidden Lake Peak N summit
We followed the ridge from Hidden Lake Peak N towards Hidden Lake Peak S, staying mostly on rock. There was lots of class 2-3 rock scrambling on REALLY nice rock (so fun!). Just before reaching the saddle on the NE side of Hidden Lake Peak N, we returned to the snow.
The scramble of Hidden Lake Peak South was more challenging than the north summit. The summer route is a “trail” with switch backs up steep slopes. The day we were there, the “trail” was partially melted out in some places and completely obscured with snow in others places Loose rock and heather poking out further complicated the route selection. We figured out a reasonable way to the top (as did others that day) and checked out the lookout cabin. Reaching the top of the highest rock on the south summit required some rock scramble moves I’d rate as harder than T3.
2 PM to 2:45 PM: on Hidden Lake Peak S summit
On return, we more or less followed the summer trail route (which was mostly covered with snow).
5:30 PM: arrived at the TH