Another Mineral King Mission

Peaks: Sawtooth Peak (N), Needham Mountain

June 2024

The next morning we ascended a trail towards Sawtooth Peak. Significant snow required us to bust out the ice axes and sometimes even drop a couple hundred feet to avoid the particularly steep snowfields. We peeled off trail once Sawtooth was in view. Class two scrambling saw us almost all the way to the summit. The summit block itself was a treacherous looking slab of granite, but proved to be easy enough to climb. I found a set of trekking poles that someone had dropped deep in between a few huge boulders. I squirmed my way down into the crevice and retrieved them. The timing couldn’t have been better since my ratty old poles both broke earlier on this trip.

From here, we worked our way along the ridge connecting the two peaks toward Needham. We dropped a bit to the south to make our way through the many snowfields, and then ascended a dreadful chute of loose sand and scree. It was not dangerous or sketchy, just slow and unpleasant. We were rewarded on the summit with more great views and three interesting pinnacles, each of which could have been the summit. For good measure, we climbed all three. It was nice being back on solid rock. Here, like Florence Peak, we were also the first climbers in over two years.

We reversed our steps to get back to the car. The scrambling was slower and sketchier coming down, and we got off route coming down from Sawtooth which was much less than ideal. Once back on trail, the miles flew by, and before long we were back at the car. I was a bit nervous that the marmots had gotten to my car’s underbelly due to my lackluster tarp job, but it turned on just fine.

We were pretty knackered at this point, but decided to make a half-hearted attempt at Homer’s Nose the next day. So we drove through town, got some beta, and parked at the trailhead to sleep. The next morning we started our hike but turned around after an hour and a half of slow bushwhacking through a dry creekbed choked with poison oak and huge boulders. Neither of us were particularly bummed about turning around. We drove back to the bay and I dropped Anthony off at the Gilroy transit center. He was going to visit his folks and I was going to go back to work.