Snow Camping at Lake Aloha in Desolation Wilderness
Sometimes a last-minute planned trip doesn’t go the best, but we managed to pull this one off! A group of my co-workers happened to get President’s Day weekend off, so we headed up to Lake Tahoe for my second-ever snow camping trip. California’s snowpack wasn’t great at the time, but we found plenty of the white stuff on our trip.
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After a whirlwind planning session, trying to fit all of my winter gear (including some new pieces) into a new, smaller pack, and a drive up to my family’s lakehouse about halfway to Tahoe the night before, we were finally in the parking lot and ready to go. While getting our boots on and snowshoes out of their bags, we were reassured by a skier that Echo Lakes were completely frozen, so we could save some miles by walking directly across the lakes, instead of above them on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Even with the reassurance, I was a little nervous to just start walking on a frozen lake. I was kind of convinced it would collapse under me at any moment. After a mile of walking on the lakes, we reached the end of Upper Echo Lake where the water taxi parks, and ate lunch at the exposed picnic table. It was kind of crazy to see exposed dirt in the alpine in the middle of February, but the table was great for a lunch stop. After lunch, we bushwhacked and post-holed up to find the official PCT route to continue making our way into the wilderness. We had some nice, leisurely snowshoeing for a while, until we came across a pretty steeply angled section of trail. It wasn’t a dangerous slope - nothing bad would happen if we slipped and slid down - but it would have been really annoying to slide down and trek back up the the elevation we were currently at. It was almost impossible to walk forward normally with the snowshoes on - the snow was getting soft and melty - so we had to face uphill and kind of side-step across this slope to not get tangled up in our snowshoes on the slope and fall.
Once we finally got past the big slope, we climbed a rise back into the trees. The next mile or so was a bit of a blur. My body was hurting from the weight and because of how cumbersome the snowshoes were. Thankfully, route-finding was not an added challenge to our trip, and before I knew it, we were at the top of the climb with a great view of Pyramid Peak, and then we started our descent to Lake Aloha. We took some time trying to find a good camp spot, and since the sun was starting to set, we quickly made camp, set up most of our gear, and got dinner going on the stoves.
On our second day, I was feeling pretty tired, and didn’t want to leave my cozy Feathered Friends sleeping bag, but our group had a goal: attempt to summit Pyramid Peak. So, we got ready at a leisurely pace - which I’ve found is always necessary when snow camping. Everything just takes so much longer to do, it seems! After many adjustments and deciding which packs and what to bring on our attempt, we were finally ready to go. We took a direct approach to Pyramid Peak from the east side of Lake Aloha, walking directly over the lake, as well as Waca and Pyramid Lakes too. We took some time to practice our self-arrest skills on a slope and take a snack break before heading up the steeper slopes of the mountain.
Our tents in the trees
Approaching Pyramid Peak
Once we got to the base of the steep climbs, it became slow-going. Navigation was easy: we just looked at the slope and tried to find the least angled areas to ascend. The wind-swept slopes were a little scary in some places though. I had to be careful where I stepped to make sure I wouldn’t step on a slab and send it down the mountain, and possibly slide down with it. I was getting exhausted about halfway up. At a particularly hard spot, we had to almost go directly up a slope. Because it was in the sun, the snow was so soft and everything was just collapsing under my weight. I couldn’t kick steps in that could support me. I almost gave up there, but somehow I was able to pull myself up after many attempts.
After that exhausting ordeal, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to summit. It was starting to get late in the afternoon, and there was still another 1,000 feet of elevation gain to go. Normally, I’d be disappointed, but it was so gorgeous where me & Lacey decided to stop and wait for the boys, I couldn’t be too upset with myself. There were beautiful views of Lake Tahoe, Dick’s Peak, Mount Tallac, Round Top, and the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski runs. We stood around, searching for the sun to keep us warm, stuffing our face with snacks to keep our metabolism up and running, and ducking behind our rock ledge when the wind picked up. We kept stealing glances at the peak to see if we could locate the boys, and finally, we saw two tiny specks on the top waving down at us! We were excited for them, and also excited that they would be back soon so we could get moving and warm back up again.
Going down was so much fun! We glissaded most of the way, and only had a little bit of elevation gain walking over snow drifts on the way back to camp. In the late afternoon, we got the saw and shovels out and built our little camp kitchen table, with a wind block half-wall. One of the best parts of snow camping is building your own little home in your campsite! Thinking we would be snubbed with the sunset as the clouds had been so thick just an hour earlier, we were happily proven wrong with a dramatic sunset that painted the sky. One of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in the backcountry. It was magical after a challenging day.
After a pretty exhausting day the day before, we slept in on our third morning. It was probably the latest I’d ever slept in while backpacking! I enjoyed being snuggled in my sleeping bag and reading Becoming on my phone. It was really windy this morning, so I didn’t even emerge from the tent until noon-ish when I finally couldn’t hold my pee any longer. Once we were all up, we cooked our breakfast/ lunch at our kitchen and just hung out, enjoying the views. After a while, we packed up our day packs and went exploring around Aloha and to some other tarns - Lake LeConte above Aloha and looking down onto Heather Lake, which I vividly remember walking by on the PCT. It was a beautiful afternoon, but I was so dang tired! I’m happy we explored more, though.
After our afternoon jaunt, we walked back to camp and enjoyed one last night making dinner and marveling at the darkness of the night sky. I wish I took some astrophotography photos, but I completely forgot my pocket tripod on this trip. Sometimes its nice to just admire things without worrying about taking pictures of them.
On our last morning, we were pretty ready to go. It was a very cold morning and we juggled making breakfast in the vestibule of our tents while not spilling anything. We were successful but it was cumbersome. Probably should have just done it outside, but it was so. cold. And we were in the shade, so our campsite was not warming up quickly enough. Once we finally got some sun, I ran over to a little spot to get my feet warm, as I was getting cold from finally having to emerge from my sleeping bag and pack up, even though I was wearing my top, fleece, puffy, AND rain jacket!
The Crystal Range at sunrise
Frosty gear on our last morning!
The hike out wasn’t very noteworthy - we went out the same way we came, but decided to not deal with the steep slope and just go down. It was a much better idea! We did end up back on the trail eventually, and made it to the edge of Echo Lake in no time. We had a little bit of scary excitement when we were crossing Echo Lakes and heard the ice shifting below us on the lake. It was slightly terrifying, and there were melting spots on the top, so we hugged the south-western, more shaded side of the lake as much as possible since that side promised a more frozen lake than the middle/ other side. We dodged the President’s Day snow-playing crowd as we hustled to the car, then proceeded to explode all of our gear around our car. I was dead-tired. Something about this trip just really sucked the energy out of me, and I felt super un-fit. It was probably a perfect storm of the first snow trip in a year, elevation, and dehydration, but I’d be lying if it wasn’t a hit to the ego. Despite feeling worn out, it was a beautiful trip, and I’m happy I was able to push through.
Do It Yourself:
Lake Aloha is in the Desolation Wilderness to the south-west of Lake Tahoe. Permits are required year-round to backpack and day hike in the Desolation Wilderness. Visit the forest service website for more information about acquiring permits. Parking in the SNO-PARK lot during the winter also requires a day or season pass to leave you car for the day and overnight. The hike is about 6.7 miles one-way to Lake Aloha from the SNO-PARK lot crossing Echo Lakes, and about 6 miles from the Echo Lake Chalet in the summer.
