Hidden Lake Peak

Trip Date: 10/15/2015
Roundtrip Miles & elevation gain: ~9 miles, ~4000ft
Elapsed time: 8 hours

We followed the trail to the top of the switchbacks at 5400', at which point it starts traversing. We found a bootpath, and followed it straight up to the saddle south of Sibley Peak. We followed the ridge south up and over one bump, then had some fun rock scrambling for the next mile or so. It seems the best path is to stay lower, as each time we tried to go higher to regain the ridge, we would run into very steep slabs. In general, we did a rising traverse on the east side of the ridge until just below the summit, where we regained the ridge to the summit. The rock scrambling was awesome, with some very grippy rocks and slabs to climb. We spent 30 minutes at the summit enjoying the 360 views on this mostly clear day.

From the summit, we headed down the ridge to where the trail meets back up, and followed it up to the southern summit with the lookout. After a brief break, we took the trail straight back to the cars.