I'm spending June in Leadville, and I've been working on some of the peaks I haven't climbed around Independence Pass. UN 13,556 is on that list. Since it was only recently ranked as an independent peak by LiDAR, it's been most commonly climbed as an incidental part of a Blarney/Twining/Geissler East/Geissler West loop, and reached by its class 3 south ridge from Twining and/or its class 3 north ridge from Lost Man Pass. I've already climbed the other peaks, so I didn't need to do the full loop; I'd planned to do 13,556 by the north ridge, but there have been 40mph gusts for seemingly every day the last two weeks, and I shy away from class 3 routes in conditions like that. So I poked around for other options. The Climbing Cooneys have an "east flank" route on their website, and though it's really more of a hypothetical approach with no details (they haven't climbed it themselves, just heard about it from someone), it looked like it would go on CalTopo, and it would be sheltered from the wind for virtually the entire hike. So I figured I'd give it a shot, and headed out to the North Fork Lake Creek TH. It totally does go: 7.5 miles, about 2700' of gain, and nothing more than steep class 2. I don't usually post TRs, but since there's no beta on the eastern approach on this site, I figured I'd do a quick writeup in case it helps anyone down the road.

There's an upper basin below the peak, and the first task is to get up into it. It seems like there's a couple of different options:

1) I've been told there's a climber's trail that leaves the North Fork Lake Creek trail on the left and goes up to Blue Lake below Twining's east flank. I've been up NFLC four or five times, and I swear I've never seen it. But from Blue Lake, you could climb about 300' over a low ridge to the north, and you'd be in the basin below 13,556. This report on LoJ, the only other thing I could find on the eastern approach, takes this option, though it was done in a year where there was lots of snow on the eastern slopes, and eventually crosses over to the west side of the south ridge to avoid it.

2) About 1.9 miles up NFLC, there's what looks like an old, wide slide path (?) where the forest clears out. It's steep (about 700' in a third of a mile), and there's more gain here than in the options further along the trail; the upper basin slopes down to the north, so this route tops out higher up than the later ones. But it's only very loosely vegetated -- scattered small pines, and some willows with lots of space of between them -- and has excellent footing. I came down this option; see later in the TR for a description.

3) The Cooneys suggest turning about 2.25 miles up NLFC, at what they call "the last group of trees on the left." I didn't see anything at 2.25 miles, but at 2.5, there's a break in the trees that goes right up to Point 12,273. It's obviously not "the last group of trees," but it headed in the right direction, and I knew from CalTopo that the slope was gentler here (about 600' in four-tenths of a mile). I went up this option.

4) If you ignore the Cooneys' distance figures, but follow their instructions to wait for "the last group of trees on the left," you could probably find an even gentler slope on the northeast or northwest side of Point 12,273 -- though you'd be adding some distance to your hike.

But like I said, I chose the third option, through the break in the trees right below 12,273. While it looks from the trail like it's got more willows than the slide path, the only bashing I did was in the first couple of steps off the trail; on the rest of the slope there's lots of space where you can thread your way between them. Having gone further up NFLC a couple of days ago to do UN 13,220, I have to say that the willows in this whole valley are really the most inoffensive I've seen in Colorado -- rarely more than waist-high, and widely separated rather than bound together in impenetrable f*!@ing tangles. Anyway, navigation was easy; I just aimed for the left (south) edge of the rocky point that is 12,273, which is almost always visible on the ascent.

At the top of the slope, I found myself in the upper basin, which rises gently to the south. Because this is all low-angle tundra, I imagine it can get pretty swampy early season, or in a normal snow year. But this is 2026, so it was just springy turf with a handful of rivulets running through it; the only pools I saw were behind and below me to the north. I headed up to the southwest.

At the head of the basin, there are again a number of options. The most direct line to the summit (its east face) is steep and cliffy, but it looks like there could be routes through. If you swing around to the left, though, you can work your way up the southeast slopes on tundra. That's what I did.

There are some minor rocky outcroppings beneath the southeast slopes. Yet again, there are a number of options up, steeper to the right, gentler to the left.

At the top of the outcroppings, I had about 600' of gain left to the false summit (which is what you'll see from this angle). This gets steep towards the top (CalTopo puts it in the 35-45 degree category), but you're traversing across it rather than going straight up. The footing isn't as good as on either of the slopes up to the basin (there's some sandy spots mixed in with the tundra), but I can't imagine that anyone who's hiked a few off-trail 13ers would have much problem with this.

And from the false summit, it's only another 100' or so to the true summit.

It was surprisingly hazy today, and not very windy at all -- ironic, considering that the whole reason I chose this route was to avoid high winds.

On the way down, I decided to trim some mileage and descend the broad slide path back to the North Fork Lake Creek trail. That involved contouring around the head of the basin to my right, and then working my way down first a shallow slope and then the steep slope back to the trail. Keep bearing right to avoid the thickly forested slope north of the slide path. The slide path itself is very open terrain, and again, it's easy to thread your way through the occasional willows.

I hit the trail, turned right, and headed back to the TH. It may not be as aesthetic a route as the scrambly ridges, but the flip side is that you get into a high basin that I can’t imagine sees much traffic. Those places are always fun to visit.