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Here's a cool summit to hike and climb. Awsome view into Desolation Wilderness towards Dicks, Tallac, Jake's, and of course the Lake. The left pic shows the view from Eagle Falls Parking area at Emerald Bay. The Butteress is the left point on the ridge. About 1 and 1/2 hour hike/scramble from the car to the base. Routes are in Lake Tahoe Climbing Guide.












Tahoe Rules! I read a ridiculous Tahoe World Letter-to-the-editor, from some woman listing all the reasons why she's psyched to have moved to San Luis Obispo. Seems to be a lot of that in the local paper. Total negativity. People always complaining about community dynamics, traffic, stuff to do....half the time it's the Tahoe World Writers themselves. Are they seeing the same thing I am?

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

There is definitely a lot of traffic and neverending friggin' construction and other crap in the basin, but I'm with you man -- spend about 5 mins getting off the main drag and you're in some amazing stuff. Or get on your bike, whatever. Great photos of that area. Gotta go climb there soon. Views are ridiculous!

Good to see you are still climbing Mike! The ridge that continues North from the summit is probably the best knife edge ridge traverse(only?) in the Tahoe Basin. For those comfortable without a rope, it goes at 4th class via the mountaineers route to gain the ridge. It's been 7 years since doing it, but I do recall one downclimb on the ridge that may be 5th class, but it does go in a pair of Vans.

Cheers to Tahoe

was up in squaw for the weekend with the family. couldn't sleep on Friday night, so at 4:45am I gave up and jumped in the car and cruised down to Emerald Bay. A nice run up the trail in the pre-dawn twilight. Good to escape the heat that's been baking the area. Took me about 1:15 to get up to the toe of the buttress, with a few off-route 'schwacks en route. I took the obvious chute with the monster talus blocks that leads up through the cliffs above Eagle Lake. I descended the slabs to the east (looks like the ascent route Mike took, judging by photos above).

The routes up the buttress look pretty awesome, but I was solo with trail runners. I spied a line up the left side that looked like solid class 4. About 20 feet up it got a little spicy, so I backed off and followed another line to the left that looked like it would go in the tennies. 25 more feet up, and that easy looking chimney from far away was actually a stout off-width with a roof blocking it. Wasn't into the overhanging stuff, so again I backed off. Eventually, I kept cutting left to what is probably the mountaineers route. Fun climbing on slabs with chickenheads. Near the top there was a sweet little 30 foot open book, not too steep. Fun liebacks got me up it, and soon i was just below the summit block. Crossed over the crest and found a nice meandering crack that I took up to the top. Cool summit, although looking behind me, I noticed that there were several points on the ridge higher than me. So I downclimbed the block and started the traverse. As described above, fun class 3-4 scrambling along or just below the ridge, with the occasional 5.easy move thrown in. I picked off two more of the highpoints, and then hit my turnaround "breakfast with the kids" time. I picked my way down the cliffs on the east side, then talus hopped and 'schwacked some brambles down to Eagle Lake. Then jogged back down to the trailhead (totally under construction right now) to the car.

Got behind some guy going like 25 all the way up the west shore to TC. GRRRR....

All in all, a killer way to spend a few hours in the morning.

BTW: is there any good way to descend from Jakes Peak that doesn't turn into a murderous bushwack? That west ridge of the west summit of Jakes looks like a fun scramble, but the descent looks absolutely heinous (unless you simply reverse the route).

You must've been well charged with pop tarts and peanut butter in a toothpaste tube that morning.

This one is high on my local to do list. Could it be linked up as a Spring skiing trip?

Thanks for the beta guys. We climbed the Eagle Route (5.5) - 3 pitches - today. Easy climbing and great views in all directions. Looking forward to going back for more. The knife edge ridge leading north looks particularly interesting, as does the Orange Book route. Anyone else notice that winter line spilling off of Maggie's towards Eagle Lake???

nice work joe! I did see that line off Maggies. Can't recall what it looks like in winter, but that area is always fun to check out, and close to the road.

Here's the view off the top in winter. Notice the buttress in the background. The approach slabs are covered...

<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37159.jpg" border=0>

Went to Eagle Lake Buttress today with Vince, on pretty much the nicest day of the year. They are all pretty good, but today especially. We climbed Orange Sunshine 5.9 and Wind Tree 5.9, which were both really fun. Both climbs were done in 3 pitches. Vince let me lead the middle pitches, which were the 5.9 spots. I felt the 5.9 moments were short and easy to protect. A bit different from the last time I went to EB at the start of this post. Back then I was just a passenger, nervous to follow on 5.9. This might have been my first multi-pitch climb even when Barry took me up there in 2004.

Most Tahoe Climbing is in a really beautiful setting with perfect rock, and usually perfect weather. Eagle Lake Buttress above Emerald Bay takes the cake. We went up the white line and down the red line. very approximate route sketch. It's certainly not hard to find the start of the climb, and quite fun hiking up there. Park outside the Eagle Lake Trailhead parking lot to skip the $5 fee. Head for the buttress when you arrive at Eagle Lake, which is about where this picture was taken from.


Check out this huge stubbie tree that is probably 1000 years old.


Our two climbs in black on the south side of Eagle Lake Buttress. Both climbs end up using the top part of the East Ridge Route 5.7, where the views are specatular. Line on the left is Wind Tree, and on right Orange Sunshine.


Here's just part of my view while I belay Vince on the first pitch. Excuse me while I pinch myself that I live 25 minutes from the trailhead. Oh, it takes an hour and a half to hike up here. That's actually the best part though, you might run into one other party on a weekend.


on the right Vince leads the first pitch of Orange Sunshine, which is shared with Orange Book. The book says 5.7. It was a really short pitch, and could probably be combined with the next 5.9 pitch.


Vince on the top of the peak on the left. Walking down 4th class from the summit with the Velma Lakes in the background. Last time I was up there we walked down the steep gully right at the top of the climb. I think this is 5.4. This time we downclimbed some exposed 4th class and went north on the ridge 100' where it's easy to get down. It's still steep and requires careful routefinding. Nothing tricky, just mind beginners (since this is the perfect place to sell your beginner friends on multi-pitch backcountry climbing!)


View from the summit




awsome wind blown junipers


Cool rock gendarmes, spires, whatever you want to call them all over in this area.


The locals on the left. We saw large hawks above us for much of the day. On the right Vince starts the exposed 4th class downclimb.




Down at Eagle Lake, one of the nicest hikes in Tahoe. Fairly crowded even in the fall, go in non-prime hours.

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

some pics from Eagle Lake Buttress a month ago or so. Steve and I climbed A line 5.9, only I whimped out of the off-width and climbed around it at 5.6 or so. Then we did Orange Book 5.8 which was really awesome. Going back for that one again.





I forgot my photocopied guidebook page, so I put it in the camera. my drawn line on the left shows where I easily skirted the only 5.9 part of A line, which was a steep ominous looking wide crack. I'll go back to try that one with some big cams.


Dick's Peak and the Velma Lakes. That's snow from last season. Now it's really white actually out there.


Some friends of ours pull through the crux of orange book before we went up after them.








the other guys came down off the summit the 5th class way. I did this years ago, and then found there's a 3rd or 4th class way just to the right of it.


Descending back towards Eagle Lake. You can see the trail that meets it and heads for Desolation. Above the lake there is no trail, and it's really a beautiful and easy scramble up there. If you are not a climber, go up there anyway and head towards the back of the peak.

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