Dial & NippleTop - July 16, 2016

At fourteen miles, 4400 ft in elevation gain (292 floors climbed aka 3 empire state buildings), reaching a peak of 4600 ft (Nippletop) and over 8 hours in duration...This was one of the toughest hikes I have done. Ill start by first saying that I should not have gotten drunk the night before. This did not help me get off on the right foot for the day, more on that later. We actually began the hike pretty late in the day, far later than we planned. We began around 12 pm. We planned to summit Dial first, as we hear Nippletop offers better views, so we took St. Huberts Trail-head off of Lake Road. The first couple miles of the trail proved to be quite steep as we gained a significant amount of elevation in a very short time (see graph below). This is where the previous night really came into play for me. As I was exerting myself I became extremely nauseous, resulting it a high level of discomfort for me. As you can expect I found a rather blunt solution to my problem.  

After my *ahem* ejection of matter I began to feel ready for the rest of the hike. About 2 hours in we got a great view from Bear mountain of both Nipple-top and Dial (they all reside on the same ridge line). After a momentary stop we continued on. The one thing that proved to be key for the hike was how humid and hot it was. At no point during the accent of both 46ers did any of us stop sweating. Thus it became apparent how important the need to pack sufficient enough water. After another hour or so of sweaty, dirty, climbing we reached Dial Mountain, which just has a large boulder. As expected the view is far from the best but you get about 180 degree view of the Adirondacks. It may not have been much of a view but we were all glad to take a few minutes to rest. After about ten minutes we decided to continue the rest of our hike and have lunch atop our second mountain.  

Moving sweataly along we reached Nippletop at around 4  and a half hours in. As you can see from the panorama above the view was beautiful and the lunch I ate was just as good. I was starving. We were all tired but after an hour and some storms started to roll in, we decided to get a move on back down to the car. The decent was very steep as you can see in the graph, but we were able to get down in about 3-4 hours. All our feet were hurting but it was a hell of a hike and I cant wait to put another one under my belt.

Cascade & Porter - July 1st 2016

Around comes the fourth of July, whats more American than conquering the land itself? Exactly! So with every annual trek up to the ADK for the annual get together of college friends we made sure to have a mountain or two on the docket. This year we had a large group of different skill levels. So to accommodate everyone we choses the easier of the ADK 46. As these were on the list for myself it still was a great opportunity to knock them out while enjoying the company of some good friends. 

The weather was predicted to be rather "flashey", if you know what I mean, but we decided to proceed with the hike. Proved to be a good choice. The overall weather was uneventful, no storms just some light cloud cover. The trail itself was very clear and well maintained, and very easy for some while proving to be a challenge for some (see right).  We got to the top of Porter first as it was the longer of the two. The top is not marked by a seal (or one we could find anyway) so we almost went right past it as it has a limited view. We then backtracked and summited the last 0.3 miles of Cascade. To get a good sweat in and get those legs moving after a bit of time off was good. To get a couple first timers indoctrinated to the 46 is always an even better thing. Always good to summit with good people. #NeverStall

Wright Peak -Jun 25th 2016

Summer weekends tend to get rather busy, so it was not surprising that I was not able to complete another high peak until more than a month after the seasons opener. I was excited as ever to get back out on the mountain. This time was different than the first as we had a first time vertical hiker, let alone a first time 46’er, so the pacing was slightly different than I am used to but I was excited to get some acclimated to hiking some of the high peaks. As the title suggest I chose a mountain that I thought an experienced high peaks hiker would enjoy while making sure to accommodate a first timer.  

The weather was perfect, slight cloud cover but the temperature was perfect for a day hike. The trail was very well maintained and had little foot traffic that day. I spoke about our pace being slower than what I am used to hiking at and this was due to our first timer having some trouble with some of the more physically demanding portions (steep elevations). At many time he felt he might not be able to finish the climb, we reassured him that he could and made sure to stop to catch his breath and continue the hike. We assured him that the decent is significantly less demanding psychically and just requires more focus, as to avoid twitting your ankle.  

B-47 Bomber Memorial Plaque

As we continued to the peak the temperature did drop a bit and it became significantly more windy once we cleared the tree line. The view at the top was wonderful and provided a great sense of accomplishment for both myself and Kelly, but even more so to our first timer as he had overcome his perceived limitations and accomplished his first. Until another one, NEVER STALL!

Giant Mountain - May 7th 2016

Finding peace, piece by piece.

     And so begins the 46. We couldn't have asked for a better day for a spring hike, especially it being the first one of the year. It always interesting seeing how the body will react to a stress it has not felt in a while. I've always loved how hiking always differs from other physically sententious actives. Hiking uses muscles in the legs, ankles and feet that have been dormant, even when staying extremely active in the winter. The focus on the stabilization of the feet and more dynamic use of the calf and thigh muscles always gets the blood pumping.. Beyond the obvious workout, it was interesting to finally be outside again and as I like to call it, "breath in the new".

The new air, new sights, and new life are always good to be among. The trail proved to be muddy most of the way but was easily manageable. The accent of Giant allowed for some great opportunities to stop and rest while taking in some fantastic views. It pops up every time I go out but every hike is a learning experience as we encountered some ice close to the summit, 0.5 miles, which was a great time to use crampons...if we had brought some.. Upon reaching the summit the wind was swirling so the temperature was drastically different from the majority of the hike, but it was a magnificent view of the other high peaks. I wished I could have obtained my GPS watch prior to this adventure to display speeds and time but maybe next time.  Overall, Giant Mountain proved to be a great start to the season and a great start to the Adirondack 46. #GetOutThere