Ogul #48 - Phipp's Peak

May 11th, 2024

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They say adventure begins when things start to go wrong. By that logic, this trip became an adventure before I even got out of bed. I went to bed Friday night around 8:45, hoping to wake up at 4AM. I usually fall asleep without any issue, but on this night, I simply could not fall asleep. I decided to cut my losses around 1AM. Leaving a few hours early sounded a whole lot better than laying there and never falling asleep. I was out the door around 1:30, and at the Eagle Falls trailhead around 3:20AM, skis strapped to my backpack and ready to roll.

I had attempted this last spring, and was unaware that there was a bridge that crosses the creek, therefore had to give up pretty early, also in the dark. This time, the trail was thawed out, and I had no issue finding the bridge with my headlamp. Once I crossed the bridge, the trail was covered in some very slick snow, compacted by the insane amount of foot traffic the trail receives. I carefully walked up the steep and slick section, and before I knew it the trail leveled off somewhat onto a bench above the creek. From there, it was somewhat uneventful for a mile or so.

The strangely colored sky above Tahoe

By about 4:15AM, I came out of the forest just above Eagle Lake. I looked up at the Milky Way, and felt a sense of wonder that I haven’t felt since my first times visiting Desolation Wilderness. The mountains, Milky Way, and the remaining traces of the (very rare for this latitude) Aurora Borealis made for a truly magical sight. I stood there for a few minutes in the total dark with my headlamp off, and just enjoyed the moment. From there, I started down towards Eagle Lake, which has a use trail along its south shore. The use trail was dry for most of the lake’s shore, but became steep and snowy for the last quarter or so. I started traversing a very steep section that led straight into the water, and quickly decided it would be wise to put on my ski boots if I didn’t want to take an unplanned swim.

With ski boots on, I was able to kick steps into the steep slope, and while still very slow, I was able to get to the lake’s inlet pretty safely. Once at the inlet, the route led up a narrow, aspen choked canyon with steep, nearly vertical walls. The short (perhaps a quarter mile) canyon was extremely slow going. The snow was very thin and punchy, even at 5 in the morning. I carefully picked the best route I could, making sure to avoid holes under the snow the best I could. After about 30 minutes of painfully slow movement, I exited the canyon, and made it up a much easier slope next to Upper Eagle Falls.

The sun rising over Eagle Lake

Upper Eagle Falls with some great lighting

At the top of the falls, the snow became a lot deeper, and I stopped for a few minutes to put skins on my skis, as well as drink a Red Bull. I was tired, but so far hadn’t felt too affected by skipping an entire night of sleep. Once I started skinning, the day started feeling a lot easier. I had to find a place to cross the creek, but ended up finding a nice log/snow bridge crossing not too far ahead. A log got me across the first half of the creek to an island in the middle, and a solid looking snow bridge got me the rest of the way. From there, it was on to Lower Velma Lake for my next checkpoint.

The snow bridge

The lake was frozen still, but thawing out in areas pretty significantly. I have crossed plenty of frozen lakes, and like to think I can gauge when they’re safe pretty well. That said, I wasn’t willing to cross the middle of the lake by myself this late in the season, the ~5% chance(as I predicted it) of falling in was not worth saving the distance and effort. I instead elected to skin along the shore of the lake, still over the water, but right at the shore where it would be shallow and a lot less consequential if I were to fall in. This worked well, and I made it to the north shore of the lake in just a few minutes.

A mostly frozen Lower Velma Lake

Looking back down towards Lower Velma Lake

Once at the north shore, the snow was mostly gone, so I once again strapped skis to my back and scrambled up around a steep rock outcropping that blocked the view of the peak. After getting around the outcropping, the snow coverage became good again, and I resumed skinning. The sun was fully out at this point, so I put on some sunscreen. The route was very easy from here. I managed to find a nice continuous stretch of snow all the way to the summit outcropping. I left my skis at the base of the rocks, and topped out around 8:20AM.

Getting close to the summit

At the summit, I texted my wife to let her know how the day was going, and sat down for a good bit to eat my sandwich and let the snow soften up. The views were pretty fantastic to the west, Desolation was still mostly covered in snow. I had never seen Dick’s Peak from this angle, and saw countless lines off of it that looked like fantastic skiing.

Summit panorama

Dick’s Peak and the northern end of the Crystal Range

I gave it until around 8:45 for the snow to soften up, and was ready to start my descent. This was my first time out on a proper pair of touring skis. I was a bit apprehensive to see how the skis performed, as I had only used them briefly on some soft snow a few weekends ago. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they performed pretty well in the semi firm spring snow. I made it down ~1300 vertical feet of snow down to Lower Velma fairly quickly. I opted to go more to the west along a ridge above the lake with more continuous snow. I did have to walk a few sections, but the skiing was still great.

One of many short but stout Junipers I saw

Once back at the lake, I had another dubious crossing to make. I had to make a quick crossing of the Velma inlet, and then another short crossing along the lake’s shore. Thankfully neither of them presented any issues, regardless, I tried my best to make it across as quickly as possible. A short bushwhack got me out above the lake, and I soon rejoined my ski tracks. Another party of what looked like 2 skiers had also descended this way (perhaps from Tallac) in the past few days, so I had plenty of tracks to follow back down to Eagle Lake. I made my last few fun turns near Upper Eagle Falls, and was back into the sketchy canyon above Eagle Lake. I skied the first half or so before taking the skis off due to thin coverage, rocks, and not wanting to lose control and ski into the creek. A hellish walk through the snow ensued, sometimes postholing up to my waist. The steep slope above Eagle Lake’s south shore was equally awful, but I made it across without any issues. I made it back to about where the use trail became mostly snow free, and stopped for a few minutes to finish my sandwich and switch back into my tennis shoes.

My return creek crossing, a bit more sketchy than the one from that morning

I was quite happy with how the new skis performed

Looking back at the hellish bushwhack canyon

After that, the walk back was pretty uneventful, but quite crowded. I hadn’t seen anyone all day up to my return to Eagle Lake, but probably saw 30-40 people on my way back. I got a lot of weird looks, and surprised questions about my skis. I got stuck behind some very slow people hiking out, but made it back down to the truck shortly after noon. I think my lack of sleep, and early start ended up being a benefit, as letting the snow get much warmer would have made things significantly harder. This was by far the most adventurous and fun day so far of 2024. Hopefully many more are to come this summer.

Eagle Lake

Emerald Bay

Route

My route (my phone put itself into battery saver mode on the return trip, resulting in lower accuracy) GPX Track Download