Elevation Gain: 957m
Distance: 175.3km
Total Time: 12 hours 41 minutes
Date: August 5th, 2025
As Brayden and I were rappelling down Warbonnet Peak, we were starting to an eye a reasonable line up Cirque Lake Peak directly from the col. A reasonable looking scramble line seemed possible, so why not. When we had first arrived on scene in the area, there was a lot of confusion about this peak. On Mountain Project there’s mention of 5 towers and it looked to be at least 5.9 to top out. Certainly from Bead Lakes it appeared all but technical to reach the top. What other information we had didn’t make any mention that these towers are not in fact the high points. So it was a bit of a surprise to see a scramble route to an even higher summit tucked away behind these indomitable towers. Finally, the maps seem to have placed Cirque Lake Peak as much higher than it is and we were under the impression that Warbonnet would be the shorter of the two. In fact, Warbonnet is higher and a huge swathe of summits are mislabelled in the Sawtooths.
Once we reached the col, the scramble line became quite obvious and it seemed we might not even need a rope. I hauled one up just in case, but after we passed the one suspicious section I ditched my gear and we rambled up to the top. The summit register suggested at least a few visits per year and I’d guess many were also climbing up Warbonnet.
The summit had some nicer views of Baron Lakes and a great perspective on Warbonnet’s north face. But Warbonnet, certainly took the cake. Now we had finished up two summits and still had the whole afternoon ahead us. We decided to head back to camp where a quick swim was in order.
After cooling off, we packed up our tent and head back out to Alpine Lake and then down the trail to the turn off for the Elephant’s Perch. As we reached the start of the climber’s trail we had a decision to make. Haul the bags all the way up and camp lake side or setup shop in the valley and have a fast and light approach. In the end the lazier option won. It was already dark and we wouldn’t have much of a lake side opportunity anyhow. Camp was promptly setup and we settled in for the last night in the Sawtooths.