Sawtooth Hike
This is a great climb, but until today I had never done it this early in the season. I came under-prepared. The hike starts easily enough, and you come up along the aptly named Falls Creek.
About 2,000 feet higher we hit our first snow
It was still pretty hot at this point, wearing t shirts and leggings. We had this big boulder gulley to ascend, however with the snow field intact it was a lot easier.
At this point Rob put on his crampons and his ice axe setup, I just continued with my regular hiking boots and a stick I found.
We hiked on snow almost all the way to the summit, which is a right turn at the top of the gulley and another 300 vertical feet roughly. Here is the view of Twin Peaks from the summit:
I’m reading Lord of the Rings right now, and just got to the point where the fellowship had to turn back after encountering too much snow, and not being well equipped for it. I could relate, the descent ended with ice and water squishing around in my boots, as the snow pack had softened. In fact, it had softened so much that in one place I was post-holed up to my hips.
Overall the climb was 8.5 miles, 4,171 feet of elevation gain, and it took us 4 hours and 34 minutes.
We also celebrated Grandad’s 82nd birthday
