46er
46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks
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Lower Wolf Jaw (Winter)
There are perfect days for hiking. This, unfortunately, was not one of them. In fact, it was the opposite of a perfect day for hiking.
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Cascade & Porter (Winter)
Cascade was our first high peak, way back in 2009. Back then, the three quarters of a mile to Porter might as well have been a million; we were exhausted within a mile of the car.
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Colvin, Blake, Nippletop & Dial (Winter)
God made me a glorious Adirondack day, with four summits and nearly 20 miles of wonderful winter hiking.
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Allen Mountain (Winter)
4,340-foot Allen Mountain is one of the more rued hikes for aspiring 46ers. It sits to the south of most of the other High Peaks, isolated from all the other trailheads. The start of the hike, shared with the über-cool Mount Adams and its restored fire tower, is a whopping 9 miles (one way!) from…
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Cliff & Redfield (Winter)
In finishing the Adirondack 46 High Peaks a second time, I had a few of the more remote peaks to tackle. I had considered attempting Allen Mountain instead, but the planning (read: breakfast in Keene Valley) dictated this pair instead.
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Esther & Whiteface (Winter)
After doing about 11 miles the day before, and having a 6-hour ride home afterwards, the close combo of Whiteface and Esther fit my plan perfectly. I started from the Atmospheric Science Research Center, which sits at the base of the old ski lift on Marble Mountain.
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Iroquois, Algonquin & Wright Peaks (Winter)
Conditions were perfect for hiking, with hard-packed snow almost the entire length of the hike. There was enough snow along the entire route to smooth out the innumerable boulders, rocks, and roots which are a hallmark of this trail.
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Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge (Winter)
The snowy summit of Giant Mountain at 8:15 AM was completely clouded in, but the wind was low making it beautifully quiet. I snapped a couple photos and quickly turned back to head towards Rocky Peak Ridge, hoping for it’s wonderful views.
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Santanoni, Panther and Couchsachraga Peaks (Winter)
I would ascend via the “Express” trail directly to Santanoni Peak, then descend all the way to Couchsachraga, and hit Panther Peak on the way out via Bradley Pond. Looping this way makes the total hike about 15 miles with 5,000 vertical feet of climbing.
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Porter Mountain and Little Porter Mountain
After climbing Porter Mountain via Little Porter (and Blueberry Mt.) this summer solo, I wanted to bring Kathy along this interesting and scenic route.
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Nippletop Via Elk Pass (and Dial Mountain)
We enjoyed an unusually comfortable hike up the icy Elk Pass to Nippletop for our December Adirondack weekend.
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Tabletop, Marcy, and Phelps
Upon finishing this 18.5-mile, 5,400-vertical foot hike, I reflected that these three mountains are really just hiked together by peakbaggers.
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Street Mountain & Nye Mountain
It helps that the weather was perfect, and that it’s been a dry summer so mud and water were eminently avoidable. But it’s also a lovely and wild forest, you just have to look 10 feet off the trail to see it.
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Mount Colden and Mount Marshall
With autumnal weather finally arriving, I jumped on an opportunity for one more Adirondack hike. Keeping with this year’s theme, I carved out a plan to hike two new trails, alternative approaches to Mounts Colden and Marshall.
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Gothics, Sawteeth, and Mount Haystack
My plan was ambitious, so I stayed overnight at the interior Johns Brook Lodge (JBL), cutting 7 miles round trip to and from the car. Seeing no morning rain, I started on a loop over Gothics and Sawteeth to Haystack via the Warden’s Camp.
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Mount Colvin, Blake Peak, and Sawteeth
It’s rare enough to enjoy long, difficult, multi-peak hikes; it’s rarer still to hike one with a friend and mentor. To then hike seldom-used trails in the Adirondacks with beautiful weather made it a near perfect day.
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Little Porter – Porter Mountain – Blueberry Mountain
I encountered my first other humans at the summit of crowded Porter Mountain. I stopped for a brief photo and quickly headed back the Range Trail towards Blueberry Mountain. On the way, there was a perfect rock outcropping offering views of Porter and Cascade, after which I continued towards Blueberry.
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Big Slide
Our new aspiring 46ers enjoyed their third High Peak in three days, ultimately logging 30 miles and almost 10,000 vertical feet of climbing in the process. Each day was simply perfect for hiking, cool with a mix of sun and clouds.
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Dial Mountain
Instead of the quick 3.8 miles to Big Slide, for which we didn’t pack lunches, we started Dial an hour later and didn’t finish until after 5.
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Mount Colden
Kathy and I were incredibly proud — two new aspiring 46ers with Mount Colden as their first ever High Peak. Way to go!
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Mount Skylight (and Mt. Marcy)
We had previously hiked Mount Skylight in 2012, the year we started tackling the 46 High Peaks in earnest. It was our hardest hike. Ever since, we have been looking to go back. This hike was our primary target for 2015. Then we both got injured. Well, so what?
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Scenic Trail to Sawteeth
Back in 2012, we hiked Sawteeth in conjunction with Gothics in our first Adirondack traverse. Gothics was the star of that hike, with its (in)famous cable route and sprawling vistas. Sawteeth was a half-mile out-and-back-again tacked on somewhat as an afterthought.
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Wright Peak, 2015
Wright Peak is a slightly lower summit on the way up to the popular Algonquin Peak in the MacIntyre Range. Looking for another relaxing day (and having summited Algonquin twice previously) it was chilly as we started, but not nearly as cold as the previous day.
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Phelps Mountain 2015
Our first time up Phelps, we climbed the north side of the mountain to a socked-in and windy summit. This time, we took the marked trail from Marcy Dam and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
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Rooster Comb to Basin – (Almost) Great Range Traverse
I hiked about 20.1 miles, gaining 7,200 vertical feet over 8 mountains. It wasn’t quite a full Great Range Traverse, but I got to hike some new trails and re-summit some of the most picturesque summits in the Adirondacks. It was a good day.
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Big Slide Revisited
One of the best views we never saw in our initial round of Adirondack 46 was Big Slide Mountain.
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Mount Colden, Our 46er Finish
We had accomplished a goal set 5 years prior, through adversity and joy, in a simply perfect day for hiking in these beautiful Adirondack mountains.
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Seymour Mountain
Our penultimate peak would be 4,120-foot Seymour Mountain, the last in the Seward Range.
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Donaldson, Emmons, and Seward Mountain
With two of three difficult hikes behind us, the last long day in our quest was Mount Donaldson, Mount Emmons, and Seward Mountain.
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Haystack, Basin, and Saddleback Mountains
One of the things my quest for becoming a 46er has changed in me is redefining possible, and these three mountains are proof of it.
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Allen Mountain
“What type of mountain is Allen?” “Oh, just like any other mountain, only more so.”
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Mt. Colvin and Blake Peak
When we summited Mount Colvin, the clouds were hovering just above the peaks, making for an awesome view. Colvin offers a wide vista of the snow-capped and majestic Great Range, from the Wolfjaws to Haystack and beyond.
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Santanoni, Panther, and Couchsachraga Peaks
On the last day of summer, we did a loop hike of the Santanoni range: 4,606-foot Santanoni Peak, 4,442-foot Panther Peak, and 3,793-foot Couchsachraga Peak.
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Dix Mountain
Hiking these mountains started on a whim, and I for one had never hiked anything, ever, before my first trip to Lake Placid. Over the course of these several years our hiking has taught us about ourselves, about overcoming obstacles, about completing seemingly impossible tasks.
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Esther and Whiteface Mountains
Five days of hiking out of six was more than we had ever done. Factoring in the difficulty/length of three of those hikes, we were looking for something simpler on day 6. Enter Whiteface & Esther.
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Mount Marshall via Indian Pass
The Indian Pass trail was easily the best/most interesting lead-in trail we’ve taken. It’s much prettier (and softer) than the Van Hoevenberg or Phelps trails, and not nearly as boring as Lake Road.
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Redfield & Cliff Mountains via Lake Arnold
Many (most?) people choose to climb Cliff & Redfield Mountains from the south via the Upper Works trailhead. From the Adirondack Loj, where Kathy and I started, the mileage is about the same, but our route skirts the 3,800-foot elevation Lake Arnold, adding several hundred feet of climbing both ways.
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Tabletop Mountain
Heading straight for the summit of Tabletop at about 4 miles from the Adirondack Loj, the last mile was dark and muddy (but not shoe-stealing muddy) with relatively middling views.
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Lower Dix Range – Macomb, S. Dix (Carson), E. Dix (Grace), & Hough
The Slide Brook and Lillian Brook herd paths were two of the best trails in the Adirondacks. They vary the terrain and direction enough that you don’t feel like you’re on an endless trail, and almost the entirety of both routes is soft underfoot and well-maintained.
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Dix Range Traverse – Dix, Hough, S. Dix, E. Dix, & Macomb
Wanting to finish my summer off in style, I made one last 800-mile drive to climb more mountains. Wanting to satiate my inner masochist, I chose a day hike of the 5-peak Dix Range.
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Dial & Nippletop
Iterations of this hike have been planned and scrapped since July, with the latest one a proposed Colvin-Blake-Nippletop-Dial hike. The previous day’s over-hiking scrapped the 4-peak plan in favor of a more modest straight up-and-back over these two, allowing if nothing else an extra hour of sleep.
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Wright, Algonquin, & Iroquois And Avalanche Lake
Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois were the three best back-to-back-to-back peaks we’ve enjoyed in the Adirondacks.
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Skylight & Gray
We had been dunked in mud, trod underwater, stopped-and-re-started, rushed off a peak, re-routed, drenched in a passing thunderstorm, and hiked over 18 miles & 5,000+ vertical feet. We wouldn’t have changed a thing.
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Rocky Peak Ridge (and Giant Mountain)
The only car in the lot, we signed into the trail at 7:44 AM. Before noon we were enjoying lunch on our 15th high peak, on Rocky Peak Ridge.
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Phelps Mountain
We had already completed two hikes which to us were special – our one-way traverse of Gothics & Sawteeth and our first “unmaintained” hike up Street & Nye. After making them both easily, our new 46er mentors gave us a new challenge, for a secret passage up the back of Phelps Mountain.
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Street & Nye
Having successfully navigated a one-way traverse of Gothics & Sawteeth, and with the encouragement of our new 46er mentors, we decided to hike our first “unmaintained” trail to Street Mountain and Nye Mountain.
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Gothics & Sawteeth
The views from 4,736-foot Gothics were wonderful. We had a perfect day again.
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Mount Marcy
Mount Marcy, at 5,344 feet, is the highest mountain in the Adirondacks. It is also the most hiked of the 46 high peaks, which is a little odd to me since it is a 14.6-mile round trip taking the usual way from the Adirondack Loj (pronounced ‘lodge’).
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Lower Wolfjaw, Upper Wolfjaw, & Armstrong
We made it fairly easily up to 4,173-foot Lower Wolfjaw which offered better views on the way than on the top, and then went back down-and-up to get to 4,173-foot Upper Wolfjaw. After lunch on Upper Wolfjaw, we easily had enough in us to make it down-and-up again to 4,400-foot Armstrong.
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Big Slide
Wanting to ease into 2012, we decided that our first hike was up 4,240-foot Big Slide. The scenery on the hike up to Big Slide was varied and had enough climbing to be interesting and challenging.
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Porter & Cascade
Our first time up we were new to hiking (Cascade was our first high peak) we didn’t think to take the side hike to Porter Mountain. This time we did both, two peaks in one day.
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Algonquin
Algonquin is the second-highest peak in all of New York, at 5,114 feet, and the hike was terrific.
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Giant Mountain via Zander Scott Trail
Despite our unpreparedness in pretty much all aspects, we made it to the summit. It was breathtaking. 4,627-foot Giant dominates the Keene valley to the east of the Great Range, offering spectacular sweeping views.
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Cascade Mountain, Our First of 46
Cascade Mountain is, along with Mount Marcy, the most popular summit in the Adirondacks. It benefits from a relatively short 3-mile hike which starts from well-traveled Route 73 and spectacular 360 degree panoramic views.