
Starting out along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Lamont Benchmark visible in the center, Lamont Peak on the right.

Working our way up to the saddle south of Sawtooth Peak.

Starting up to Sawtooth Peak along a social trail. Sawtooth is visible right of center.

Looking back at the traverse to come as we make our way up to Sawtooth Peak. Spanish Needle visible top center.

Steep, sandy slope up to Sawtooth Peak.


Another shot back down the way we came, Owens Peak visible center.

Final push through some brush to Sawtooth Peak.

Looking back from the summit of Sawtooth Peak. On the right is Lamond Benchmark, behind it is Lamont Peak, Owens Peak top left, Spanish Needle in front of Owens.

Sawtooth Peak summit.

Heading back from Sawtooth Peak to the Pacific Crest Trail.

Back on the Pacific Crest Trail, heading south.

One major switchback along the PCT, a view back toward Sawtooth Peak and the ascent right we took to get to its summit earlier.


Approaching the spot where we left the Pacific Crest Trail to get to Lamont Benchmark, seen ahead.

Steep sand on the way up to Lamont Benchmark.

Looking back as we ascend, Sawtooth Peak visible top left.

The route continues through a forested section just below the summit.

Lamont Benchmark summit block, Class 3.

Lamont Benchmark, view north toward Spanish Needle and Owens Peak top right.

Back on the Pacific Crest Trail, which heads to the right of these humps ahead.

Pacific Crest Trail, Spanish Needle ahead.

Nearing the saddle (center) where we left the Pacific Crest Trail, heading left to Spanish Needle.

After leaving the saddle, heading along a social trail that wasn't super helpful along the northern slopes of Spanish Needle. There are a few rock ribs like the one seen in the center of this photo that require some thought to keep the route Class 2/3.

Class 2 boulder-hopping. We headed to the tree in the center. It's a tricky section where going too high or low could result in awful terrain.

A key section to stay on route.

Class 2 talus ends and we side-hilled on forested terrain.

Looking back at our progress, the saddle we left the PCT from visible center.

Some Class 2 when we determined it was a good time to stop side-hilling and start ascending.

Class 2 just below the false summit.

Looking back as we near the false summit along the ridge. As you can see here on the top left, ascending too early would result in awful terrain.

Class 2/3 ridgeline to the false summit of Spanish Needle.

Spanish Needle false summit, view toward the true summit. There were some other hikers coming back from the summit.

Some Class 3 along the ridge.

Tyler scoping out the slab. A Class 3+ move by the small tree left of center leads to the slab.

We kept high on the slab.

Looking back along the slab toward the false summit we came from.

Tyler scrambling some more Class 3 just below the summit. We wrapped around the right side here on granite flakes, slightly exposed.

Spanish Needle summit, view toward Owens Peak.

Spanish Needle summit, view toward the Lamont ridgeline we'd be doing next (left) and Lamont Benchmark (right).

Back on the Pacific Crest Trail.

East Lamont Peak top right.

We left the Pacific Crest Trail at East Lamont Peak's eastern saddle. It will be tempting to follow a social trail, but it leads to the right and away from the peak. Stick to the ridge, even though it's a bit more bushwhacky than we liked.

Continuing along the ridge, some bushwhacking and some nice walking like this.

Nearing the summit of East Lamont Peak, Spanish Needle visible top left and Owens Peak visible top right.

East Lamont Peak false summit ahead.

Looking back again.

Getting to East Lamont Peak required a short down climb on the right to avoid cliffs, then to re-ascend to get to higher ground.

East Lamont Peak summit block, view back toward Spanish Needle (top center).

East Lamont Peak, view west toward Lamont Peak and its scary-looking north ridge that we wouldn't be dealing with. It just looks pretty.

Through the forest as we traverse to Lamont Peak.

Staying on the ridge made the going a bit more tedious, but we did get some nice views. Keep to the right of the ridge for easier terrain.

Lamont Peak visible on the left. None of those pinnacles on the right are part of the route fortunately.

Lamont Peak above. It looked intimidating, but a nice social trail led along the cliffs' base and safely up some Class 2 terrain to the stummit.

Lamont Peak, view back along the ridge to Spanish Needle (center top) and Owens Peak (top right).

East Lamont Peak, view toward West Lamont Peak.

We followed the obvious and sandy Lamont Peak Trail down.

Looking back toward Lamont Peak as we continue on the Lamont Peak Trail.

The trail was in surprisingly good shape. At this meadowy section, we left the trail and headed to the right to locate a route up to West Lamont Peak.

After leaving the Lamont Peak Trail, we headed through some brush and on bouldery terrain. The summit area isn't clear yet.

Just below some gnarly cliffs, and after pulling a couple of difficult-to-describe Class 2/3 moves we were at the base of the potential high points of West Lamont Peak (above out of frame on the left.

Some more minor route finding led us to the summit area. Possible West Lamont Peak high point is visible ahead to the right of Tyler.

Tyler on the Class 3+ slab move for our first high point (the western one marked on my map).

Tyler on the crux of the western possible high point.

Summit of the western potential high point, view east toward the summit block area (below) and the possible eastern high point (right of the tree in the center). Lamont Peak is visible top right.

After boulder-hopping to the east for a few hundred feet, we made it to this juggy, fun Class 3 possibly higher high point (the eastern dot on my map) on West Lamont Peak.

West Lamont Peak's eastern high point, view toward Spanish Needle and Owens Peak.

Back on the Lamont Peak Trail, we continued with only a couple of minor issues with route-finding.

Overall the trail was great. Chimney Peak Road visible center. Our end car was down there somwhere.

One section along the Lamont Peak Trail where the trail pops over a Class 2 boulder that was hard to follow. We added a cairn, but it might be gone, so just pay attention. The trail was always good enough to follow, so don't start bushwhacking.
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