High Sierra Topix

Topographically speaking there's this very alluring line in the Cathedral Range, basically a traverse of the ridge including Mt. Rafferty. Starting from Elizabeth Lake, ascend east up tributary creek to small lakes below Johnson Peak (or bag Johnson Peak as the first part of the ridgeline traverse). Ascend SE to saddle above Lake 10439, then traverse Rafferty Ridge - Rafferty Peak, skirt Peak 11357 just to the west, then over Peak 10787 and down to the broad shoulder below. Map here: https://caltopo.com/m/KLTVQ

Has anyone attempted this line? Most of the ridge looks feasible/likely class 2, but two spots stick out as potential cruxes:
- the ridge ~1/4 mi NE of Peak 11357, which might be a knife edge?
- the ridge just to the NE of Peak 10787 which also looks quite narrow

Secor describes Peak 11357 as Class 2 via "Southeast Slope" which is confusing as the immediate slope SE of the peak is incredibly steep. I'm guessing he means a route starting from Emeric Creek directly SE of the peak and ascending due north up a long ramp feature all the way to the ridge NE of the peak, then traversing the ridge SW to the peak. Or, this could be an error, as the "Southwest Slope" looks quite gentle and would imply a traverse up to the peak along the ridge from the SW, the tail end of the route I describe above.

This probably gives you what you need, and confirms the bogus class 2 rating. Just looking at the topo I'd think you could go around anything difficult, but I'd be ready for at least some class 3.

I don't recall any difficult scrambling/climbing on that traverse that can't be avoided through careful route finding or easy bypasses, but I'm more bold than sensitive when scrambling. My friend and I completed that ridge in early June of 2018, but neither of us are as consistent in writing reports as Bob Burd. I have linked a map and likely crux photo that is probably the knifedge you asked about southwest of Rafferty (I'm having trouble posting images directly). I suspect the crux may involve how challenging you find this section to climb or bypass in the wide range of what some would call class 3 (maybe I'm crazy and opting to climb this is class 4 or looks worse in the pic than it is):

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/hfkfc0zIGWdN

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/mxD8ahmZBfH1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YJfj9tY8fUB3ueLW8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KmiSJFUt9z8h5GEF8

We ended up doing this route this past Thursday; it was supposed to be the first day of a four-day trip, but we were turned back after one day by mediocre smoke conditions and some disagreeable new footwear.

Overall the route was really fun, Peak 11357 is definitely the best portion, particularly the approach from the N ridge through the gap in the big turrets. We had near-perfect visibility and the view from up there is wonderful. There are a few surprise giant granite teeth that do not appear in topo or slope shading detail.

We had to bypass the NE ridgeline of Peak 10787; from edge-on, looking from 11357, it looked class 4 to us, though by this point in the day we were starting to tire and the weight of four days of food plus enough water for the ridge made any exposure feel a lot less OK. Instead we dropped off the N side of the saddle into a small basin and ascended a crappy, loose, but not very steep chute.

We tried to finish the ridge the next day but we were turned back by a ~15' class 3 downclimb at (37.77790, -119.39052) above Emeric Lake (downclimbing with a big pack is beyond my sketch comfort). Too bad, the rest of the ridge looked quite fun.

Emeric Lake is just comically phallic from the ridge above it, with anatomically correct inflow and outflow: We came back by hiking the base of the ridge, and noticed a potential approach to Peak 11357 from the S; there's a 200' band of fairly steep granite at (37.79428, -119.37010), but there's a well-vegetated erosive feature that runs all the way up the right-hand side. We didn't try it but it looked doable. We finished out by hiking up to the meadows below the saddle to Reymann Lake, and walking most of the rest of the Johnson Peak ridgeline through a series of lovely high meadows E of Johnson Peak. The end of this ridge has some very rugged and fun pink granite slot canyons which we apparently failed to get any pictures of.