I was up working on the Hanging Lake trail with my dad on Saturday and I figured out a better route that avoids the steep difficult part of the climb. The new variation is quite a bit easier to ski. We flagged it with pink ribbons, but they are not as frequent as the permanent markers, so a little bit of searching might be required. The new route leaves the old one at the creek crossing and stays on the climber's left side of the creek for a further 500m. Then it cuts back to the right just as things start to get steep, crosses the creek and rejoins the old route above the difficult climb. My dad doesn't do steep switchbacks, and he made it all the way up without any complaints. If you're heading up that way in the near future and try out the new route, please send me your feedback. I'll have a downloadable gps track log posted on the voc wiki page shortly.