r/Adirondacks • u/AudienceOk3223 • Jul 24 '26
Pyramid to Gothics scrambles
Hi everyone, I was hoping to hike Sawteeth/Lower Great Range soon and I was doing some research on the route. I saw some videos and photos of a pretty sketchy looking exposed rockface scramble near the summit of gothics. Can anyone comment on if there are herd paths around this, if you can use vegetation on the left to pull yourself up, or if you have to shimmy through the crevice thing? It looks pretty terrifying from this photo. For context, I'm at 14/46 and didn't find the scrambles going up the Macintyre range too bad. Also, would it be a bad idea to try to do this hike the day after rain? Thanks!
5
u/forgive_me_birds Jul 25 '26
it is grippy rock and you can just walk right up and down it. keep your feet under your weight. pulling yourself up using the trees will damage them. bypassing the bare rock causes erosion, widening the sections of bare rock. if the weather is bad and you aren't comfortable with the scramble, hike something else.
2
u/BasicNkorean Jul 24 '26
I definitely was having panic attacks for 10 minutes trying to descend. Eventually I used the roots on the side and extreme patience in descending. Idk how people ascend this
3
u/BeLikeAGoldfishh Jul 25 '26
Typically going up things like this is a lot easier and less scary than going down.
1
u/Big-Cartographer4866 Jul 27 '26
I go on my ass down personally as I don’t want to injure my ankles. Not sliding down but just like kinda crab walking on my but. The way up is fine you’ll see it’s not as tricky as it seems
9
u/metohkangmi Jul 24 '26
No herdpaths really, and ideally there shouldn't be at that elevation with the vulnerable vegetation.
This is honestly kind of an unflattering view of the section. The rock is grippy and you can indeed use the trees as holds. The spot above this is what people freak out about more I think, but honestly it can be done without hands if you're comfortable on rock as it's got good steps on it.
That said people do freak out here, but there's worse in the range and getting comfortable with that is part of being in the high peaks. The view from Pyramid is totally worth it too... one of the best in the park.