Hike Liberty Peak, Tri-Lake Peak, Lake Peak, Wines Peak Loop Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, NV

Jul 27, 2022 — The Ruby Crest National Recreation Trail (RCT) runs near many of the high peaks of the Rubies, providing great access to a remote and gorgeous part of Nevada. Many hikers do the trail as a one-way hike over the course of a couple of days, but Chris and I were more interested in using it as a means to get some of the interesting peaks in the range. Our original plan was to just take the trail out to Wines Peak and return the same way, but when we saw the gorgeous northern ridge of Lake Peak, we improvised mid-hike and were quite happy we did. I'll note that if you do this hike as an out-and-back using the trail (excluding the traverse from Lake Peak to Wines Peak), the outing doesn't exceed Class 2.

From the end of the Lamoille Canyon Scenic Byway, we started up the RCT and followed its many turns and switchbacks as it led through forest and clearings, wildflowers literally everywhere and blowing our minds. We passed the Dollar Lakes and Lamoille Lake and stopped at Liberty Pass, the saddle separating Liberty Peak from Tri-Lake Peak. Here we decided to go for Liberty Peak first, a straightforward Class 2 ridgeline hike to this gorgeous summit. Liberty Peak really shows off the peaks and lakes of the area. We backtracked to Liberty Pass and headed east to Tri-Lake Peak. There's some Class 2 boulder-hopping and a false summit followed by more ridge hiking to gain the high point.

We stared south in awe at the cliffy-looking north ridge of Lake Peak. Our initial plan of just taking the RCT got thrown out the window immediately. Earlier research led us to believe the standard route to gain Lake Peak's summit was via a loose couloir on the peak's north side, and it looked horrible from here. Of course, Bob Burd had already done the ridge traverse, so we trusted his judgment and joyfully started south from Tri-Lake Peak in an attempt to make the hike into a nice loop. The hike down was very nice, nothing exceeding Class 2 and overall mostly just tundra. Little wildflowers poked out all over the place and the daunting ridgeline ahead loomed above the sparsely-growing trees. Upon reaching the base of the jagged section, we decided it would be best to keep to the left since the crest was just a cliff. We groaned at the knowledge we'd be on white rock under intense sun exposure on this absurdly hot day. Keeping left meant doing a bunch of Class 2 side-hilling with some Class 3 that sort of just sneaks in casually when we had to scramble on interesting mini ledges. It was quite fun. After making it about halfway along the ridgeline, we realized we hadn't actually even done any scrambling along the crest yet. This would actually turn out to be the case for entirety of the scramble, since the pinnacles are unrelenting.

Whereas Bob describes a section where he switches to the west (right) side of the the ridge, I found his route to be far too exposed and dangerous and called it quits, forcing Chris to skip on some potential fun. I just recommend staying on the east side to keep the route Class 3. We watched as the ridge shot up on our right while we were still traversing along the same contour. This meant we'd have to ascend a steep Class 2/3 slope in order to regain the ridge, but it was actually pretty fun rather than annoying. Once back to the ridge, it was Class 2 (still keeping just east of the crest) to Lake Peak.

Wines Peak became visible to the south, our final peak of the day. The descent from Lake Peak pushed us to west of the ridge since the crest had lots of rocky crap. The ensuing side-hilling descent wasn't too annoying along this portion, and we eventually were able to make it back to the ridge and descend to the RCT. From here it was a matter of taking the switchbacks up to Wines Peak's east ridge. A short bit of off-trail hiking got us to its high point.

Now all that was left was a nice long trail hike! We headed down from Wines Peak and followed the RCT north as it led through meadows, forest, and up and over a pass at the end of Lake Peak's west ridge. It was a really beautiful trail. We met a junction with the Kleckner Creek Trail where there was water running down from Favre Lake (omg, I was so dehydrated). We continued our ascent to Liberty Lake and then up to Liberty Pass again, completing the loop. On the way back from Wines Peak, the RCT gained about 1500 vertical feet just by getting up and over passes, so keep that in mind. Yet another excellent day in the Rubies!