Dan just made this great video to recap our adventure!
I have the joy working all summer with guides from all over the country and from many different backgrounds. I often get close with my co guide for the trip and then we have to go to work on another trip and we struggle to meet back up. Like ships passing we see one another heading out for a trip or on our way back, we share our stories and keep moving forward. Rarely do you get to befriend another guide who you could see as a friend you will have for the rest of your life.
This summer I met Dan, a guide from upstate New York who is starting his career in the outdoor industry as his first season as a guide. While it is his first season guiding he is far from being new to the trail.
Dan is a PCT and CDT hiker, completing both hikes traversing the country for more than 5,600 miles. He also has completed an amazing route in the Sierra Nevada that he called the Super Sierra High Route. That high route is actually where I first saw Dan in his element as he posted an amazing documentary on Youtube, and I was a huge fan of his channel before I met him this season. Maybe the most niche star stuck you could get but I was so stoked when I realized that Dan was that guy who made such an inspirational film my friends and I had seen so many times.
So Dan and I hit it off great this season with our first trip together being a scouting trip in Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite, we would later lead a trip out there with customers later in the season. On the trail we shared our hiking stories our favorite areas to visit and of course our shared appreciation for the delirium that sets in when you are with good friends on the trail and have been in the wilderness for a while. We eventually landed on how there is a wild creature in the Yosemite National Park that goes by the name Yerba Santa… there is more to that but lets just say this cryptid was a bit unhinged. We also shared ideas of link ups and hikes we wanted to complete in the near future. My favorite dumb idea that I have had for a few years is to link up all 4 types of volcanoes in Lassen National Park in one day. We decided we would try for that this season. 40+ miles 11k vert, What a great idea.
Well due to reasons we didn’t foresee at the time such as my move to Arizona we would have to put the Lassen Challenge on the back burner for now. As if we were in any condition to complete that hike. We opted to go on one of my last weekends in California to hit Tahoe. Dan had texted me simply “Crystal Range Traverse?” and I was in. With the excitement and eagerness of someone who didn’t fully understand what I signed up, I said “that sounds insane. kinda down.”
The Crystal Range is a mountain range that towers over the alpine lakes of Desolation Wilderness just west of Lake Tahoe. The range towers into the sky reaching almost to 10,000 ft above sea level with Pyramid peak topping out at 9985ft. I have had my eyes on the 2 mile stretch of Ridgeline since our hike of the TRT last year. It is such a beautiful skyline from Lake Aloha and was such a striking view from the top of Dick’s pass I swore that I would do it sooner rather than later. So Dan and I decided two days before going on the trail to attempt the traverse in one day.
Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
A 4am wake up alarm hit the day of the hike, We had spent the night before wandering the local Walmart for snacks for the trail and lost track of time. We hit the bed probably at 12:30… that did not set us up for success.
We hit the trail after a drive up HW 50 at around 7am, still a bit groggy from the late night but we were eager to get above the tree line.
The trailhead was a heart racer in that it shot straight up the side of the canyon, zig zagging up the steepest sections it warmed us and thawed the chill of the morning. We made our way out to find the view of Pyramid Peak still looming above us.
The hike up had us cross through multiple bands or widths of ecosystems, from dense ponderosa pines with wolf lichen covering them bright green to shrubby willows along the stream to the edge of the forest where those same trees became small bonsai clinging to the rocky surface.
We made it up to the talus scramble, just about 150-200ft from the summit where we climbed up large refrigerator to small car sized boulders to reach our first peak on the traverse.
From the summit of Pyramid peak and we got our first view of desolation wilderness as a whole. The wilderness that I hiked through years ago that inspired such wonder and awe, now below me in an almost a patchwork of white blue and silver with a border of deeper green. Dan and I made it to the benchmark, notched our names in the book and took some pictures. We were joined on the summit by butterflies that floated above us, welcoming us to this higher realm. A marmot chirped at us as well, a friend who watched us later down the trail. We enjoyed the views that swept below us from right to left, ending on the rest of the crystal range that was ahead.
Jagged peaks and snow covering the slopes below that could hold on, this was a perfect adventure.
We made our way down the talus of the north side of Pyramid and hit our most difficult section of scrambling. Dan said that it was the only time we would see class 3 terrain. Class 3 terrain requires you to hold on to the rock to get yourself up and over, this includes a bit more risk and exposure as well. Some real type 2 fun. It was also not the only class 3 we would see.
On our way through we communicated and scouted and made our way up this section. Hoisting myself over the hump thinking okay that’s the easy part done…
Picking through the talus to find the cleanest line was not easy, it took a lot of time and we still had Mount Price lingering in the distance. It took us longer than we expected.
finding the line up mount price was challenging and we did some more climbing to make our way up and over, for all the cursing and frustration we enjoyed our view of Pyramid and the ridgeline we had just completed.
