With the road to Mount Evans closed (presumably due to COVID-19) it seemed like a perfect time to do climb it via Mount Bierstadt and The Sawtooth. However, smoke from Pine Gulch fire made the air very hazy and the smell of smoke was in the air all day (especially first thing in the morning).

This was the boys' first real taste of exposure and class 3+ scrambling on The Sawtooth. The scrambling was a piece of cake. The exposure was pretty intense for Jackson but he powered through it.

Jackson ended up bonking on the ridge up to Mount Evans. There was some serious whining and sniveling on the way down but we finally got some protein into him and he caught a second wind as we dropped down into Scott Gomer Creek. (Layton was a rockstar throughout and even tagged the extra credit peak Mount Spalding while I waited for Jackson.)

The bushwhack out was not as bad as I feared - there was very little mud and wet. There was a fair amount of willow bashing but even that wasn't terrible. It was good for the boys to learn what the word "bushwhack" really means :)