Mon, Apr 19, 2010
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Etymology Little Round Top |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 | Profiles: 1 2 |
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Peak 9,390ft later climbed Tue, Jun 22, 2021 Little Round Top later climbed Fri, Jan 2, 2015 |
Wade is the name of the benchmark placed on a somewhat high point south of Lake Tahoe between Hope Valley and the much larger Carson Valley. The benchmark was placed to aid in triangulation measurements and consequently has a fine view overlooking Nevada, but is not highest point in the area. That honor goes to an unnamed point some 23ft higher about a mile to the southwest. Wade is on the OGUL list, a Sierra Club compilation of peaks in the Tahoe region and one of only a few on the list I had yet to visit.
Pete Yamagata's online guide does not add any appeal to the climb of Wade, describing the old roads and trails as "wretched" and "decaying" with a non-trivial amount of aspen and willow thickets to negotiate. Bill Peters had climbed Wade a few weeks earlier on similar snow coverage I would encounter, and reported no such issues. As I hoped, I found no significant navigation issues with conditions much as Bill had reported.
I started from the Horsethief Canyon TH southwest of the peak along SR88/89 a
short distance east of the Snowshoe Springs Campground. The start of the trail
was non-obvious to me as the sign points north, perpendicular to the
road. I wandered some
about the forest before finding my way on the trail. On the way back it was
easy to follow the trail back to the parking lot - what I had missed is a hard
right (east) turn just after the sign to the start of the trail. Part of my
confusion may have been due to the early hour of 5:45a when there was just
enough light to get by, but not much else.
I followed the trail as it made its way steeply up the west side of Horsethief
Creek for more than a mile before the canyon opens up some and the slope
lessens. While there was no snow at the start around 6,600ft, there was no
bare ground by the end of that first mile when I had climbed to about 7,600ft.
I lost the trail as there were no tracks to be found in the snow - Bill's tracks
had been covered by newer snow in the intervening weeks. I came across an
old fence
mentioned in Yamagata's guide, much of it dilapidated. Eventually I had to
make my way to the east side of
the creek
and I found a suitable snowbridge to
make this easy enough. What I didn't know at the time was that there was a
bridge over the creek less than a hundred yards further upstream that I only
discovered by accident on the way back, but it mattered little.
The sun rose shortly before 7a, lighting up the higher peaks in the Carson Range
to the north,
noteably Freel Peak. It was easy traveling up the canyon once I
had moved to the east side, without any serious impediments as I made my way
north towards the unnamed pass at the head of the canyon. The snow was mostly
frozen and made for easy travel during the morning hours, no trouble with
postholing or other troublesome conditions. Before reaching the pass I curved
right to climb up towards the higher summit of Peak 9,390ft, moving onto the
north side of the NW Ridge to allow me to traverse over to Wade without having
to first climb to the higher summit.
Though steep in a few places, the traverse worked out nicely and by 8:30a I had
found my way to the summit of Wade in less than three hours. The summit was a
mostly snow-free collection of rocks high above the Carson Valley to the east.
The benchmark appears to be missing, but there were two
location markers still
embedded in the rocks. A
rusty tin
held an OGUL register placed in 1987. Pete
Yamagata looks to have the most ascents (4), first visiting it
in 1988. There
were other recognizeable names among the fifteen pages including Don Palmer
in 1993, Bob Sumner
in 1995, Erik Siering
in 2001, Adam Jantz
in 2007, and John Fedak
in 2009. And of course Bill was the only other visitor from earlier
in March. Next to the register was
Bill's gift
that he had hinted to me via email -
an ice-cold bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade. I was surprised to find that the
bottle did not appear to have frozen - it had certainly been cold enough over
the last two weeks to freeze water, but not enough to freeze the alcohol. Mmm.
I tucked the bottle in my pack for future imbibement.
Leaving the peak, I was surprised to find a medium-sized white rabbit sitting
among some rocks about 20 feet from where I had to take off my snowshoes to
cross a dry patch of ground. The rabbit did not budge though I was making a
good deal of noise in doing so. I took
a picture of it from a distance then
crept up to see how close I could get. I took a
second picture
when I was
about 10ft away, but upon creeping closer it took off. It was the closest I've
ever seen a rabbit allow.
Rather than return via the same route with the dog-leg turn, I opted to go more
directly southwest back to Horsethief Canyon. Though I did not plan on climbing
the higher peak to the west, my route took me close enough that I thought,
"What the heck, what's an extra hundred feet of gain?"
The summit was rounded and trees blocked much of the views,
making it decidedly less impressive than Wade.
Looking east to Wade, it wasn't
at all obvious that I was 23ft higher as suggested on the topo map. I dropped
down into Horsethief Canyon, found
the bridge over the creek, and eventually
the snowshoe tracks I had left earlier on the way up. Thirsty now, I made use
of Bill's gift and found it remarkably refreshing - hydration and alcohol
consumption all in one package that made the return trip quite enjoyable.
By 10:45a I had made my
way back
to the highway
and my car, not surprisingly still the only vehicle at the trailhead.
I spent the next 30 minutes driving west on SR88 back up and over Carson Pass
to the dam at Caples Lake, across from
Round Top.
It was much too early to
call it a day so it was good that I had a secondary plan.
One of the few peaks in the
area I had yet to climb was Little Round Top, not on any peak list, not
much prominence, and not a county highpoint, but it was one of the higher peaks
in the Lake Tahoe Basin that I had yet to visit.
The climb to Little Round Top wasn't all that memorable, owing perhaps to my
choice of route that followed through the trees much of the way. Others have
reached the peak via a longer route from the Sno-Park near Carson Pass which
involves a more scenic ridgeline traverse, probably a better choice in
hindsight. My route was more or less direct,
with minor deviations to avoid some cliffs on the south side of the main ridge
in this area. I came across roads
that had been used by both snow mobiles and
XC skiers, but since they were more circuitous I didn't use them much.
It took about an hour and a half to climb to the summit,
making use of the Southwest
Ridge for the last several hundred feet. The summit area is large and flat and
consequently doesn not feel like much of a peak.
Still, by walking around to the
various sides one can get nice views in all directions. Desolation Wilderness
is prominent to the northwest,
with Lake Tahoe about 13 miles to the north
across the broad canyon formed by the Upper Truckee River. Unfortunately, the
blue skies of morning had given way to clouds and hazier skies of an
approaching storm that made the lake barely visible. Stevens and Red Lake
Peaks were prominent to
the east,
Round Top and the Kirkwood Ski Area to
the southeast.
There was a rock
wind break
built at the summit - oddly I've been finding these on a number of the
recent peaks I have visited. There was no register tucked inside the rock wall
that I could find.
I dropped off the east side of the summit, initially following the
main ridgeline
before dropping down into the cirque southeast of the summit.
The route was a very smooth decline devoid of trees or brush or cliffs, just a
uniform covering of softening snow that involved some mild postholing. At the
bottom of the cirque I came across one of the
groomed roads again which I used
to follow for a short distance through the woods. I spied a
wooden cabin through
the trees that I later noted as "Schneider Camp" on the topo map, but
otherwise didn't investigate further. Using a combination of
the roads and
more direct cross-country, I made my
way back to the car by 2p, only taking off
the snowshoes for the last hundred yards or so. It was early enough that I
would get back to San Jose well before sunset, in fact just in time to take my
daughter to her dance class and save my wife the trouble. What a good father
and husband, eh?
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Little Round Top
This page last updated: Thu Jun 24 08:50:42 2021
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