Jakes Peak is a 9,187-foot summit in the Sierra Nevada above Lake Tahoe’s southwest shore, within the Desolation Wilderness and Eldorado National Forest. Rising about 2,950 feet in only 1.5 miles on its east face, it has a striking presence from the Tahoe shoreline. Its waters drain toward Lake Tahoe, and its high Sierra setting gives it an alpine climate shaped by Pacific storms that bring rain and snow as they rise over the range. The peak’s name serves as a memorial to ski patroller Jeffery James Smith, known as Jake, and the six others who died in the Alpine Meadows avalanche of March 31, 1982; it was officially adopted in 1985.