Recent results on the identification of high- K isomers in the Yb-Lu-Hf-Ta region populated using deep-inelastic reactions are presented in the context of the expectations for the formation of multi-quasiparticle states close to and to the right of the stability line. Factors that affect the purity of the K -quantum number include chance degeneracies, which provide an opportunity to extract mixing-matrix elements, and statistical mixing due to the presence of high level densities above the yrast line.