Deadhorse Pass, Larch Lake — Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018

I think I've found a better route of getting to Larch Lake than the standard Deadhorse pass route. 

I got a late start to the day leaving the trailhead at 10am. There were two other cars at the trailhead although I didn't see anyone all day until I got back to the parking lot. The trail started off fairly mellow and well groomed.

The standard deadhorse pass route is marked on the map in the images leaving the trail and then skirting below a cliff band, gaining a buttress, and then scrambling up to the pass. There is a photo of deadhorse pass below from the summit of peak 7534 and you can see it is quite loose and steep. I ran into one other group at the parking lot after I got back who had turned around at deadhorse pass. After comparing notes, we think the route I describe is much better. 

I left the trail before the normal departure. It doesn't matter too much where you leave in that stretch of trail. It's all fairly low angle forest with minimal underbrush. It's pretty easy to go uphill until you hit the ridge line which opens out from the forest. The ridge has a faint track (animal or otherwise) that follows the crest for the whole way. You soon reach an obvious notch in the ridge and have a good view of both passes. You can escape down left (north) off the ridge to a small meadow. Follow the meadow uphill, continuing to trend north. You're aiming for the shoulder of peak 7534 that was visible from the ridgeline. It's fairly benign for off-trail travel. There is a few steeper sections that you have to pick your way up but nothing that feels exposed or sketchy. The final stretch to the shoulder is a long talus slope. From the shoulder, peak 7534 is an easy quick summit. There is a prominent ridge line (You can see it on the left in the larch lake image) that extends down from the shoulder down to Larch Lake. The ridge is a bit loose and a little steep at the top but eases off quickly. It looks very passable and a lot friendlier than the way down from Deadhorse pass. I didn't go down to the lake due to lake of time but it looked like it would have taken another ~2 hours to go down to the lake and back up. Total time was 8 hours car to car to summit of peak 7534.