Phipps Peak - A nice snowshoe & hike roundtrip from Emerald Bay

California's weather is currently influenced by a so-called "blocking high" off the Atlantic coast which brought us nice warm and sunny T-Shirt days down in the valley for almost all of December so far (and it doesn't look like it will change any time soon). Unfortunately this prevents the winter storms from rolling in and the much needed rain and snow is missing. Not enough snow for a ski-tour, but too much snow for a hike, this is when the snowshoes get their outing!
Last week from the top of Tell's Peak I looked over across the Desolation Wilderness and saw a peak which seemed like it should have a name, but I didn't recognize it. At home I checked and found out that it was Phipps Peak. After some research (on Bob Burd's page, summitpost and a report on Peakbagger.com), I decided to start at the Eagles Lake trailhead at Emerald Bay, and do a combination of the marked path via Velma Lakes and Bob's shortcut.

The Eagle Lake trailhead parking is currently "closed". Since there is hardly any snow there, the gate is still open and parking is free for the time being. I walk along the sometimes icy, marked trail to Eagles Fall and - Lake. There I decide to walk on the frozen Lake and first check out Bob's shortcut at the northwestern end of the lake. From this perspective the way up to the saddle doesn't look all that appealing with some obvious bushwhack at the begining. So I decide to circle the frozen lake (there's some beautiful black ice on the south side) and head straight up to the trail to Velma Lake on the eastern end of the lake. Once on the path I look across Eagle Lake and now clearly see the chute which Bob took and decide to give that a try on my way down.

A few people seem to have already taken the path towards Velma Lakes in the last weeks, so with all the tracks and not too much snow on the ground it is easy to find and follow, and, for quite a while I don't even need to put my snow shoes on. At the pass between Azure - and Upper Velma Lake I take a short break and now put on my snow shoes. I first walk to Upper then Middle Velma Lake which are both frozen and can be walked on. At the northern end of Middle Velma Lake I take off my snow shoes again, because the south side of Phipps Peak is mostly snow free. The walk up to the highpoint poses no difficulties.

I take a break and even though there are some clouds today, I enjoy a nice view from up here. Lake Tahoe can be seen in two directions, the south end and a tiny bit of the north end if looking past Rubicon Peak. After my break I walk back down the south side, this time heading southeast and then east to the drainage south of Phipps Pass. Even though there is quite some snow on the ground here, I don't need to put on my snow shoes but walk down along the unnamed creek.

At an altitude of about 8200 ft there is a rather steep drop of about 400 ft which requires me to take my hands out of my pockets (T4, class II or very easy class III). There seem to be various options here, some easier some harder, and bushwhack can easily be avoided, not so further down along the creek. In order to avoid the worst thicket I change to the south side of the creek and later get back to the northern side of it and walk up towards the little saddle west of Eagle Lake (approximately 7600 ft). The chute down to the lake is on the northern end of this saddle and is quite steep (up to 50°). Since there's hardly any snow on the ground the way down to the Lake doesn't really cause problems, but if this was snow filled it might be "serious business". From the Lake I then walk back to the trail on the east shore and from there back down to the parking lot.


Notice: I rated this snowshoe hike WT1, because I only needed the aids in easy terrain (from the pass between Azure - and Velma Lake to the base of Phipps Peak). However, if everything had to be done with snowshoes on your feet, this would be quite a difficult tour: WT6!

Notice II: The "Class I" rating of the cross country version from Eagle Lakes to Phipps Peak (partially my way down) on summitpost is definitely too low, at least Class II or easy Class III is what I experienced. Also, judging from the comments on peakbagger the summitpost version of the cross country route (along the creek) seems to be a terrible (and not recommendable) bushwhack experience.