The snow cover was too thin and the trail too exposed and rough to warrant the use of snowshoes. Finally, at about 3300 feet, there was enough snow cover, so we switched to snowshoes (we'd been barebooting up to that point). Hello? still waiting for a good big snowstorm down here!
At outlook number 4, the trail crests one of the more major bumps (or 'teeth') along Sawteeth's crest. The trail then heads down for a short bit and traverses over to the next bump, and then climbs it steeply. This goes on for a few iterations until, finally, with a very steep push, climbs up to an excellent lookout on the shoulder of one of the two main lobes of Sawteeth's summit. The day was clear and relatively mild, and these steep, south-facing pitches were pretty warm!
Overall, our ascent of the 'scenic' route was slower than I had calculated. This is a steep and challenging way up!
Approaching superb lookout
From here, we were a simple half-kilometre traverse over undulating ground to the real summit. The way is thickly treed with a few brief views out here and there.
Junction with obscure trail
The summit is also treed, but has a most excellent viewpoint looking out over the heart of the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. This is a very good point from which to view Haystack, Basin and Marcy.
Because of our longer-than-expected ascent time, we didn't dally too long on the summit. It was 1:15pm when we arrived at the summit, and we wanted to be back at the car before sundown.
