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*Left my thin marmot tan gloves on top of Jack's.

Snow is a few feet deep at the end of Fallen Leaf Lake Road, so I thought I'd go out to Desolation this way for a change. Angora Peak and Indian Cliff Chutes are usually what you ski from here. Going beyond that proved to be long and low angle, but beautiful and quite "East Side-Like".

If you're not a peak skier, you should go up to Aloha Lake on whatever ski touring gear you have. Heather and Aloha are really incredible. Unless you're really good with waxless skiing, you'de still want to bring at least kicker skins to make it up there.

Lots of bear tracks down low. These two local criters seem to have met each other. Not sure if they were friends.


First I skied Jack's Peak's Southeast side. It took me a little under 2 hours to get to Heather Lake, which is only about 1400' of gain. I turned north there up really smooth snow to Jack's Summit in about 3.5 hours total from the car. I waited a bit for the snow to soften a little and skied down at noon. Half way down I traversed over to the South Side above Aloha Lake en route to a Crystal Range ski. Last time I went to Jack's I went over Dick's hi col, which probably took about the same amount of time. Other than stopping to take a million pictures, I was solo. Might take you more time in a group.


Indian Cliff Chutes next to Echo Peak didn't fill in well this year. They look skiable here, but the steep ones don't go.








Cracked Crags looked cool. 2 nice chutes as pointed out early this year on the forum. A bit melted out below, but might be possible still for the granjero types.




Heather Lake, a few hundred feet below Aloha Lake. This is where you bang a right to go up Jack's. 2500' moderate climb. I used ski crampons near the top.


Today's tour partner was XM Radio. Record capable. Alti watch. Add my fancy ski touring gear, camera, phone, Spot locator... It's a material world.


Taken from Jack's Peak Summit, looking southwest at Mt. Price and Agassiz in the Crystal Range, above Aloha Lake. The northeast side of Price almost had me, but I feared the snow would be wind crust. It would be a short climb out of there back up to Aloha Lake. Maybe next week.


Looking north along the Crystal Range, into Rockbound Valley.


I started below Angora Peak. The trailhead starts behind the fire station.


Around 12:30 I started up towards the crest somewhere. I choose this little snow patch that seemed to reach the crest, beneath the star in this pic. Last time I went up Price I came down the south west side of Jack's, and angled up beneath the summit. This little passage I did today takes you to the west side where snow is continous to the summit.


It looked about 30 minutes to the top of Mt. Price. I should have gone, I ended up having plenty of time. I went to the crest and back from Aloha Lake in 1.5 hours. It looks far away, but it's only about 1500' to the top of this little mini couloir.




G3's crampons work great and are easy to put on.








Heather Lake and the way home. I bailed on the route I came in on and fooled around beneath Cracked Crag. Didn't prove to be easier to glide back. In another week or two, you might need to go out there along the north facing terrain below Indian Cliff and Cracked Crag. Snow was starting to get patchy along the dirt road I skinned in on.


I looked at all kinds of ways to cross the creek, but ended up taking my chances following it along the south side. Found this sketchy bridge at a cabin. Don't step hard in the middle of those boards!

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

good stuff
thanks Mike!

nicley done. you covered some ground there for sure. pretty sweet that they've been plowing fallen leaf this year for folks w/ the code. i've been eyeing that steep subpeak of jacks a bunch this year from cathedral. look steep but i believe its on the opposite side of the aspect you skied.

went back to jack's with some friends yesterday going from Bayview and down Cascade. Conditions are awsome. A few inches of powder on protected north slopes, great corn most everywhere else if the wind isn't hitting it.

going by Dick's


Going out this far in Desolation is tough on a splitboard. Lots of traversing and hard snow skinning. Cliff rocked it! He had 3 adult hoops games to ref that night too.


near Jack's summit. Jack's is a little too burned out to ski anything steep near the top.


Awsome view of the top of Agassiz and Price however.










Coming back over Janine's Peak. Only I heard someone complained and had the register removed, as USFS never officially adopted it. This is a substantial enough spot to deserve a name, and Janine sounds good to me.

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

Splitters beware, Schwartzy is out to kill us.

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Oh yeah, you can just glide out - M.Schwartz

Is the gate on Fallen Leaf Rd near Tahoe Mtn Rd open at this time of the year? I'm wondering if I can drive all the way down to the end of Fallen Leaf Rd now, or do I have to hoof it? Thanks

I've heard from a few sources, Mike being one of them, the gate is now open. Road is only passable to the Fire Station, so that's where it starts.

In fact I'll be hauling the overnight gear in this weekend from there to go beat the heat in the corn fields of Deso!

gliderightout, we glided right out conceptually. Sidestepping and walking at the end of a ski tour, makes them more memorable.

Hey, you could have been on the whitney tour with The Factor, Granjero, and Tim.

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

The views are so grand, panoramas offer more.

_________________
Oh yeah, you can just glide out - M.Schwartz

Fallen Leaf Lake Road is open and snow is deep back there. Vince Roger and I skied the south side of Jack's Peak this morning. Took about 3.5 hours to get up there and 2 hours to get back to the car from the summit. It's a long windy road back there. Even though this is possibly the most direct route to get into the Crystal Range Peaks and Lake Aloha, there's a reason why this isn't a busy trailhead. You'll have to navigate some bends in the creek as well as routefind around melting snow down low.

View of Cracked Crags, which greet you as you skin up towards Aloha Lake.


HOG couloirs are well filled in. Today might have been good winter snow actually. We didn't get on direct north facing terrain, but E and NE was a bit sketchy where steep. The new snow (now consolidated to a few inches) would rush down the slope with some speed and take your feet out from under you if you weren't careful.


At first I thought we might ski the Cracked Crag Chutes, but the east facing snow was punchy from a surface crust.


With wind blowing, we aimed for South facing snow on Jack's. The summit is right of center. Kind of in the middle of Desolation Wilderness. Not bad. In 3.5 hours, you can climb to a peak in the MIDDLE of a place called "Desolation Wilderness".


It gets beautiful real quick on a Tahoe backcountry ski tour, lake or no lake.


Pyramid, Agasizz, Price


Pyramid's long East side is a great ski from the summit. Although a bit peppery, you could probably ski off the north side right now if you wanted it bad enough. This side looks impossibly steep from Tallac, but is really about 40 degrees max. Anyway, Pyramid's east side is the best ski descent.


You can still ski easily off the summit of Dick's if you stay near the South Ridge.






Trying to figure out mileage, the Tom Harrison Map suggests it's about 8 miles from the car to Jack's summit.








There is really low angle terrain to ski along the way back from Jack's Peak. We found quite steep slopes however along the South Ridge, facing east. We skied the two couloirs in the middle of this picture, which are about 1000' below the summit.




Be prepared for a few moments like this or worse. The creek crossings are avoidable if you stay to the extreme sides of the drainaige, but you can't help being drawn into the center.

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

Big Vinny gettin' er done! nice photos.