Hike Trimmer Peak, Freel Peak, Jobs Sister, Jobs Peak (Tahoe Triple Crown) Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, CA

Aug 10, 2024 — Chris and I decided to tackle what's known as the Tahoe Triple Crown, a combination of the high-prominence Freel Peak, Jobs Sister, and Jobs Peak, forming a nice loop south of Lake Tahoe. We also decided to tack on Trimmer Peak, which I guess is not part of the Triple Crown traverse route, but walking by this peak felt like we’d leave the range unfinished. These summits are on the edge of the Sierra Mountains and therefore have more of a high-desert vibe rather than a lush mountain aesthetic. We left Luther Pass Road here (38.791352, -119.932678) and drove north along a mostly good dirt road, with a couple of sections that might require at least some clearance, though our Subarus were fine.

From the trailhead, we started along the Horse Meadows Trail, a forested walk that quickly reached Armstrong Pass. There were various trails at the junction at Armstrong Pass, but we took the Tahoe Rim Trail headed north. This section of the hike ascended very slowly along the forested west slope of Freel Peak with only two switchbacks, ultimately plopping us at Freel Pass. First up was Trimmer Peak before beginning the true Triple Crown traverse, a summit that's completely off-trail and not visited nearly as often as the others.

After an initial easy slope starting up to Trimmer Peak, along the ridgeline there were lots of huge boulders, so we found it easiest to side-hill either to the right or left of the crest much of the time. Even though Trimmer Peak barely has enough prominence to be considered a peak, there is a significant intermediary hump to hike up and over that makes the endeavor slightly more work than we'd anticipated. The slope dropping down from the hump is sandy, as was the subsequent ascent slope to push for the summit, both a lot less fun going up then coming back down. The summit block requires some Class 2 scrambling. Trimmer Peak was a nice diversion with some route-finding to minimize the effort. Lake Tahoe and the Desolation Wilderness were clearly visible ahead of us, and looking back we could see Freel Peak rising up. Chris joked that it was clear where California ended and Nevada started: lush green trees surrounding a massive body of water for the former, and brown desert lumps for the latter. Even though I love the Great Basin Desert, I can appreciate a good jab.

Back at Freel Pass, we were on the well-maintained and pretty popular trail and headed up to Freel Peak. We saw many parties now that we were back on a trail. Being as prominent a peak as it is, the views were spectacular in every direction. A clear trail continued east down from Freel Peak and up to Jobs Sister, mostly sandy but not loose. The views here were more of the same, so we continued toward Jobs Peak. At this point, we learned it was good we had done this loop clockwise since the descent from Jobs Sister is steep and sandy. Coming up would have been a tedious and annoying undertaking, but going down was fun and fast. There are multiple eroded social trails carved into the slope, so it was hard to stick to the intended primary trail until reaching the saddle with Jobs Peak below. From here, it was easy hiking up a sandy trail to Jobs Peak, where a short Class 2 move brought us to our final summit.

We backtracked from Jobs Peak and headed south along the Jobs Peak Trail. This was a fairly uneventful part of the hike since it was mostly a forested walk with only hints of views toward the summits we’d just been on top of. Eventually, this trail turns into an old road and leads to the Jobs Peak Trailhead. We had to continue walking along the drivable road in order to finish our loop.