"Finally snuck in a legit peak for Peak Month. What I thought would be a very easy, straightforward outing took a few turns in the opposite direction. Started out as a trailrun but petered out into a rhike. The Class 3+ scramble up to the true summit block took me by surprise; I have a strong suspicion that the vast majority of logs of this peak just stop at the end of the more established trail on Castle's west peak. The sun was long gone by the time I scrambled up to the summit. I didn't linger up there because I could see an approaching storm headed right for me. A few minutes later while downclimbing from the summit, major adrenaline kicked in as saw first lightning flash and heard a loud thunder very soon after. With no other good option, decided I had to run toward the storm down the long exposed ridge to escape. At one point while flying down I completely wiped out, but I didn't even feel it, so much adrenaline. " — scott • Aug 28, 2020

"Hiked up with Karen Officer. Despite that my knees were very sore on way back down, I enjoyed this non-crowded hike. Views of Lake Tahoe and Desolation Wilderness never disappoint." — monicahealey • Aug 13, 2020

"Backpacked to Star Lake, set up camp, and then hiked with a much lighter pack up to Freel. Slow going the last mile, but beautiful temps and weather even for a late summer afternoon. Some big clouds, but no rain. Had the summit to ourselves. " — kaylam87 • Aug 8, 2020

"What an incredible hike. Long and hot and long and hot. Outstanding views of the Desolation Wilderness and Tahoe. Could not see the smoke from the Gardnerville fire. Did the Tallac route past Cathedral Lake and up. Many people on the trail . Great day. " — puddlepirate • Jul 9, 2020

"I hiked this on November 9 with great conditions. The weather was perfect! The dirt road wasn’t that rough and a regular sedan could make it up there with careful driving. I think it took us about 25 mins on the dirt road in a small SUV. Even though it was a Saturday, we didn’t see a ton of people on trail, just some mountain bikers and a few other folks toward the summit. Around 10k feet I started to slow down due to the altitude, but slow and steady is the name of the game to get to the summit. We had clear views at the top and the wind was minimal. Really couldn’t ask for better weather! There were very small amounts of snow and ice on shady parts of the trail, but nothing that was a barrier to continuing the hike. Happy trails!" — kaylam87 • Nov 9, 2019