The Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe has some of the most pristine and beautiful backcountry in the Sierras.  Popular in the summer with backpackers the interior of this wilderness sees few visitors during the winter.  Our mission, spearheaded by my longtime time friend and climbing partner Dave Campbell, was to do a 25 mile traverse of this wilderness, in winter, skiing off as many peaks as we could along the way.

We began at 6,000 feet elevation along highway 50 near the lovers leap climbing area.

There were some big cornices on the ridge of Pyramid peak.

Almost to the summit.

After we dropped of the summit of 10,000 foot Pyramid peak.

Cracked crag in the interior of the wilderness.

One of the many frozen lake we skied across.

The shadows were getting long and we still had a few miles left to ski. We made it to the car after 12 hours on the move, skiing 25 miles and climbing over 8,000 vertical feet.  We headed straight to the pizza joint for some much needed food.  This was an amazing day of skiing with great friends and perfect weather.  Thanks to Dave for the enthusiasm and vision for this amazing ski tour.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Recent Posts, Snow Adventures. Both comments and pings are currently closed.