The minden valley is about 4700 and pretty benign, so I'd put the hard deck in that area at 5500' MSL. The point is to not give points for low altitude thermaling.

The hard deck is not intended to stop pilots from doing stupid things, nor is it intended to stop too close ridge soaring.

A more ambitious CD might put in a final turnpoint over the pine nuts with a minimum altitude, to ensure a safe lake Tahoe crossing. Final turnpoints with minimum altitudes are used in the SGP to ensure reasonable final glides, and the idea is more broadly applicable. But that's a separate idea. Let's keep it simple for now.

John Cochrane