Stopping to rest and looking back down at Tahoe/Fallen Leaf. South Lake Tahoe now visible on the lakeshore.

15 minutes of talus scrambling brought be back to the "trail" which wasn't much different than the talus.

Up over the ridge onto the high plateau and getting my first look at the Desolation Wilderness proper. Still *lots* of snow back there.

The trail soon headed into a snowfield and I played hide and seek with it for the next half mile or so...

Eventually, with the summit now in view, I gave up on the trail and just headed peakward. My initial goal was to head to the right of that upper right snowfield.

Approaching that snowfield. The terrain is hiding a dip w/ additional snow on the right, so I ended up heading to the left side of the field.

Back to the trail which crossed no more snow before the summit. There was a whole colony of marmots living in the summit talus and they occasionally poked their heads out as I passed.

These two marmots were perched on the summit highpoint and grudgingly moved as I approached. (The summit did have more than a few marmot turds)

Looking west from the summit. Gilmore is the large lake directly below. The center one is either Susie or Heather. The horizen is Pyramid Peak and the Crystal range and Lake Aloha (which appeared to still be completely frozen over) is in front of it.