Dicks Peak

Our first scramble in Tahoe on our 14th wedding anniversary!
Continuing our pattern of scoping out ski tours for the coming winter, Dicks Peak is the third highest peak in the Desolation Wilderness, and also an area with lots of touring potential.

The parking lot was quite full, but very quiet, as the Bayview trailhead is a hub for many backpacking trips. We encountered quite a few groups staying at one of the many lakes in the area.

Still a significant amount of snow in the alpine in Desolation Wilderness.

The trail was very well maintained, leading us to have a conversation about doing some volunteering for the trail maintenance groups in the area.

Dicks Lake, with Dicks Peak towering above.

I'm not sure if it's because I got accustomed to the scenery in Southern California, but I'm still constantly amazed by how many lakes, big and small, dot the area. There are so many water sources, and it completely eliminates any stresses about water and backpacking.

Coming down from Dicks Pass before the final climb to the summit.

After coming down from Dicks Pass, we veered off the well maintained trail to a use trail that signaled the start of the tougher and trickier portion of our day.

In the distance, you can see Pyramid Peak and Aloha Lake.

In places, there were decisions to be made, like "loose, screen filled gully" or "4th class terrain with exposure". We generally tended towards the more solid path, which made for some exciting moves and questions about how they would feel coming back down.

The final climb was steep and loose, with a bit of exposure in places.

Once we were past the steep cliffband, the rest of the ridge was much more reasonable as long as you stayed on top.

The final ridge to the summit.

At the summit, we ran into one group that was on the first half of a super long day (heading to Mount Tallac afterward) and another guy who was visiting from Seattle, both coming from a different direction (there are 3 routes up to the summit). We saw 10 people total who either had summitted or were on their way to summit.

We made it!

Psychologically, knowing that a route goes eliminates more than 50% of the stress associated with route finding (for me, anyway), so the trip back down through the cliffband was actually a lot easier than we expected. It was fun to do some scrambling and spending a long day in the mountains!