"V 4"

Route: From US Grant Saddle Island Lake
Posted On: 7/4/2025, By: ericahlstedt
Info: Trail is all dry to Island Lake. To the US Grant Saddle is snow free and not as loose as it looks from below, faint climbers trail most of the way. Then the right side of the ridge has a large steep snow field. I opted to just climb the ridge direct which went at ~5.5 for 100ish ft. A fall here would be a disaster and wish I had my climbing shoes. Super fun scramble though and not that loose. I also added a summit register to the true summit, which according to caltopo and the 14ers map is unfortunately the summit further from the US Grant saddle. Dropping down and to the left from the 1st summit tower,I found a reasonable 4th class way to get to the true summit tower. 3rd pic shows the steep snow. Edit- true summit is the tower closer to the US Grant saddle per Lidar, 14ers map /cal topo have it wrong 

Route: Combo with US Grant - Island Lake Approach
Posted On: 9/4/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed V4 today with US Grant; approach from Island Lake. The saddle up to the peaks is visible from Island Lake and not as loose as it appears. The use trail that contours around V4 is also visible once youre up on the saddle, and also from US Grant. That trail quickly deteriorates into very loose scree and talus until the summit block, where it is a fun scramble up to the summit. We tagged both summits just because we were unsure on which was the taller, but Caltopo confirmed that it is the further one. Overall, great weekend in the SJs - despite all the loose rock! 

Route: Island Lake
Posted On: 7/10/2022, By: angry
Info: From the saddle, veer climber's right and you'll see the "trail" that leads you to the ridge. It was very loose and nearly impossible to not rain down some rock on the descent. No summit register. 

Route: From US Grant
Posted On: 9/9/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: By far the worst of our five peaks yesterday, including lame unranked Yellow Mountain. From the US Grant/"V 4" saddle take a use trail across "V 4"'s northwest face. This trail is visible from US Grant. The entirety of the route from the saddle is on horrible, loose junk, so patience is needed. Before ascending find a relatively flat spot amongst fairly large talus. If you're ascending scree and hardpan you've gone up too soon. From this flat spot climb directly up to the skyline above you. There are some larger black rocks/boulders/talus in the middle of this gully that are relatively stable and far easier to climb than anything else. From the top of the gully turn right and clamber up scree and hardpan to some large blocks on the ridge, using the blocks for handholds. The final summit scramble is Class 2+ on relatively solid rock. "V 4" has a twin summit and we believe the first, northern summit to be the higher of the two, but you can easily reach the southern summit by dropping north off the north summit and traversing around to the south summit. 

Route: From Island Lake
Posted On: 10/14/2020, By: Bombay2Boulder
Info: This route still has snow from the August storm, but I had no problems traversing to the summit. There is a climber's trail from the US Grant-V4 saddle that runs into the snow, but you can traverse above the snow, there is enough space there. Photo looking towards V4 from US Grant, looks way worse than it is. Snow is a non factor here. Get it before the next storm, very unique views of the lakes. No summit register on this one. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/16/2020, By: tjf242424
Info: This thing seems to be pretty terrible by any route. The slopes on the west side of the ridge and V4/US Grant saddle were quite snowy, so we decided to try the gully just left (east) of the ridge, which ended up being quite steep and loose. It got us to the summit, but it was bad enough that we elected to go down the SE ridge from the summit until we could drop down off the ridge towards Island Lake. This was also loose and fairly annoying. After reaching the lake, we went on to V2, which was far more enjoyable. 

Route: From V4/US Grant Saddle
Posted On: 8/19/2019, By: Shattuck311
Info: Considerable snow on the north slopes covering the social trail. It can be avoided with use of steep, loose rocks. Rather than return the way I came from the saddle with US Grant, I went down the South slopes between Island and Ice lakes and then descended to Island lake from there and that was a much better route than going from the saddle, if you're only looking for V4. 

Route: Ice Lakes Trail
Posted On: 8/5/2017, By: JasonKline
Info: Summer conditions, no snow.