A well-known island of nuclear isomerism appears near A ΒΌ175-180 due to the deformation alignment of single-particle orbits at high angular momentum. This sometimes results in the formation of multiquasiparticle states with record spin that are long-lived because of ''K-hindrance'', i.e. symmetry rearrangement. Production methods and spectroscopic studies of these isomers remain a challenge for modern nuclear reaction and nuclear structure physics. In the present work, activities were produced by irradiation of 176 Yb (97.6% enriched) and nat Lu targets with 35 MeV 4 He ions from the internal beam of the U-200 cyclotron. Induced activities were analyzed by applying the methods of radiochemistry and gamma spectroscopy. Yields of the compound and nucleon-transfer reactions were measured and the isomer-to-ground state ratios were deduced. Calculated results were obtained using standard procedures to reproduce the (a, xn) cross-sections, and the systematic behavior of the nucleon-transfer yields was established. The isomer-to-ground-state ratios for direct reactions with 4 He ions were examined, resulting in a new characterization of the reaction mechanism.