Ralston Peak
Elevation 9,239
Desolation Wilderness - Tahoe National Forest - South Lake Tahoe, CA
Today was a scheduled training day with Search and Rescue. We had an early alpine start at 6:30 carpool and made it to the trailhead and on trail by 8:30. 14 of us started out on the trail.
The Whole Group at the trailhead
The trailhead marker and where we pick up a permit.
And we are off and running... well, hiking.
Entering Desolation Wilderness!
A few weeks ago when I was here, this trail was covered in snow. Today, it's in full sun and no snow to speak of at this point.
Making the push towards the peak.
We did hit one snow field. It wasn't very large and easily passable.
Oh good, rocks. My favorite!! Not...
These actually weren't too bad today. I'm getting more and more comfortable climbing over them. The trail generally takes you either to the south side and you get to the peak from the ridge. We decided on the more direct route. So, we made quick work of this area and went straight up to the peak.
Josh was one of the first ones to arrive at the peak.
What do we have here? GottaGetGone.com stickers on everything!
We've obviously been here before...
The day was beautiful. The peak is generally very windy and cold. We ended up hanging out up here for 45 minutes. It was warm and calm.
Pyramid Peak off in the distance. We'll be up there soon. The snow is quickly melting and it's time to make another peak run on that one.
Enjoying a well earned break and taking in the views.
The first group of peak baggers! 3 more were a ways back and would make their way up to the top, but we headed down before they arrived.
We decided to take the scenic route down the north side to familiarize with the trails on that side. There was still quite a lot of snow there and we had several opportunities to glissade down the side. Weeeeeee!!
More views to the snow. We are trying to divert around it.
Oh look, a trail!
That cornice is huge. I don't think we should go that way Dave...
The hike out was hot, dry, but beautiful. Always a good day on the mountain when the sun is shining, flowers are blooming and the ferns and showing off their bright green leaves.
Almost back to the trailhead. Stopped for a minute to grab a pic and a quick bite to eat.
The trail was the busiest I've ever seen it! We passed so many people on the trail. I think everyone got the memo.... The snow has melted on Ralston!
My tracks on Strava for iPhone. Looks like I climbed a mountain!!
We were 2 hours and 8 minutes to the top. One of the fastest I've done it. The way down took longer as we decided to head down the north side and pick up the Ralston Trail from that side. Many people get lost going that way and we should be more familiar with it. However, there was so much snow that we ended up not getting all the way around and backtracked to pick up the original trail down.
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