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Dec. 31, 2006 (Sun.)
Elevation: 4100 feet; Order of Height: 35
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Jennifer Innes
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What peak was an unclimbed winter 46er for me, not too long so that we could return for New Year's Eve celebrations, and something I'd not often done? Only one peak satisfied these criteria: Sawteeth.

Wanting to take advantage of another rare and fine winter day in the Adirondacks, we decided to tackle Sawteeth on New Year's Eve. We left the skiis at home, thinking the Lake Road would not be covered with enough snow (it wasn't down low but was up high). After a long and boring trudge, we reached the trails at Lower Ausable Lake.

We chose the rugged 'scenic' route on the way up, and it is indeed rugged and scenic - perhaps even more rugged than I remembered. The trail winds very steeply back and forth up the very steep terrain on the Ausable Lake side of Sawteeth. The trail does a lot of steep climbing interspersed with short horizontal bits where it traverses under cliffs.

After a long and challenging hike up, past many excellent viewpoints, we reach the summit altitude and quickly traverse over to the real summit, where there are superb views of the central high peaks. Wanting to get back relatively early, we take only a short break and then very rapidly make our way down the other side of Sawteeth (which is much easier and more direct), and make our way down to the lake. Another long boring trudge down the road and we are back at the car by 4pm.

See the image gallery link below for a more detailed writeup and the set of pictures.

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: December 2006 Sawteeth Mountain Hike


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