Tells Peak, McConnell Peak, Silver Peak & Red Peak

I'd climbed Red Peak once before by itself — trail in to the lake below it, then a straightforward off-trail push to the summit and back. This time was a completely different animal: all four of the northern Crystal Range's Ogul peaks in one long traverse, starting at Tells and finishing at Red.

Tells Peak came first, reached by trail most of the way before the final stretch turned to open granite and talus. From the summit, the rest of the traverse laid itself out along the ridge to the south — McConnell, Silver, and Red, each looking small and manageable from a distance and each turning out to be more work than expected up close.

The ridge between the peaks is where this day earned its difficulty. There's no trail connecting any of them — just sustained off-trail travel across talus, granite slabs, and patches of lingering June snow, with enough scrambling in places that route-finding mattered as much as endurance. McConnell in particular was slow going, with a lot of class 2 and 3 terrain and no easy way to stay on the ridge without some exposure.

What made all of it worth it were the views, which just kept multiplying — Lake Tahoe repeatedly popping into view from every summit, a string of alpine lakes scattered through the granite basins below, and long looks back at Silver, McConnell, and Tells from Red's summit at the end, tracing the whole traverse we'd just done.

About 19 miles of nearly all off-trail travel, four solid summits, and by far the toughest link-up I've done in the Crystal Range. Doing Red Peak solo years earlier didn't come close to preparing me for what the full traverse actually demands.