On July 31st, 2022, I completed my first hike in the Adirondacks, which was initially simply just to summit Mount Marcy. Little did I know that I would be making thirteen more visits to the High Peaks over the next 18 months, hiking some pretty rugged terrain in all kinds of conditions – snow, rain, mud, clouds. By February 2024, I had just one more hike left to finish the list. And I saved some of the most spectacular peaks for last – the MacIntyre Range, consisting of Algonquin Peak (the second highest peak in the ADK and in New York), Iroquois Peak, and Wright Peak.
For the last hurrah, I recruited my brother Alain to join me, as it would be nice to have someone to celebrate with. Alain had also never been to the Adirondacks, so of course, like his first backpacking trip, he would be thrown into the deep end by doing his first High Peaks in the winter. The plan was to book an AirBNB close to the ADK and do the peaks as a day hike. It would have been great to do more winter camping, but Alain didn’t have a lot of the gear for camping, so we opted to do the peaks as a day hike.
The plan was pretty simple – take off on the Friday and get in late, then get up early on Saturday to hike the range before spending another night and driving home on Sunday. It took three attempts to make this trip happen – we initially planned for the end of December, but the weather had been unseasonably warm in the ADK, so there was a lot of freeze-thaw happening and the conditions weren’t super ideal. We then aimed for January, but I had some pretty nasty pain in my lower back, so we put it off again. By late February, after I had a chance to recover and after testing things in New Hampshire for Family Day long weekend, we finally were able to pull the trigger.
The hike would be fairly straightforward – park at the High Peaks Information Center near the Loj, and take the Van Hoevenberg Trail south before it splits to the Algonquin Trail. From here, the trail ascends to a long ridge connecting Algonquin and Iroquois (along with a minor peak, Boundary), with a short detour to Wright. I wasn’t too bothered which peak I would finish on, which would either be Iroquois or Wright (depending on whether we saved Wright for the end or not), but since a large part of the hike would be above treeline, it was essential to come prepared with the appropriate layers and gear, as well as ideally hike on a day with optimal conditions (as clear as possible) to ensure maximum visibility. After my experience with Mount Washington, I made sure to come prepared with a better balaclava, and also made sure to tighten my ski goggle straps a bit more.
Day 1
I had left Toronto Friday morning to go into work in Oshawa, which is on the way to the ADK. Alain drove in from Kitchener that afternoon and we departed in my vehicle, at 4pm. After a quick ON Route stop at 6pm at Mallorytown, we hit the road again and it was smooth sailing to Saranac Lake, about 30 minutes from the Loj, and we arrived just after 9:30pm, a speedy 5.5 hour drive in total including one break. Not too bad!
Day 2
We were up at 5:30am, aiming for a 6am departure to get to the Loj for 6:30am, but a few snafus (including waiting for the freezing rain which had frozen to my windshield to thaw a bit – the scraping was very loud and we probably woke people up!) meant we left at around 6:30am. For the hike I prepared us a couple wraps/burritos with beans, spinach and tomato, as well as ketchup from our Burger King stop at the ON Route), and we also had some Clif bars and Builder Bars. I also brought a bag of trail mix that went unopened the entire New Hampshire trip (yes, it remained unopened after this trip as well, oops) as well as a bottle of Gatorade which went to New Hampshire and back, and at one point was a block of ice. Alain fortunately remembered to grab the 4 pack of Molson Cold Shots (the plan for a celebratory drink at the 46th summit). One unfortunate issue was that I could only find one of my gaiters. We didn’t end up needing them, but I was worried I lost one of them. I was hoping I had mistakenly left it in Toronto.
After parking (there was plenty) and getting suited up, we started hiking at around 7:40am. The trail was pretty thin on snow cover but where there was snow, it was pretty hard packed and icy in places, so we started out in spikes. These remained on all day – the snowshoes got a free ride. The trail was pretty easy until just after the turn off to the Algonquin trail, where it gradually became steeper and our pace slowed. We were dressed pretty lightly for this portion of the hike as we were working hard and it was pretty sheltered. After ascending some steep sections of trail, we finally made it to the junction for Wright Peak after about 2 hours of hiking. We could catch a great view of Algonquin Peak in the distance.
The trail to Wright, only a quarter mile long, was fairly steep and the last third was almost entirely bare rock. We kept our spikes on but probably should have taken them off. Before long, we were at the top of Wright, my 44th ADK High Peak. It was surprisingly not too windy at the summit, though being above treeline we added a couple layers. After failing to find any survey marker, we took a rest (found a pretty sweet sheltered spot) then carefully descended to the junction.
At the junction, I asked Alain how he was doing and he replied that he didn’t think he had another peak in him. The way he spoke I honestly thought he was joking, but he was serious. His boots were giving him a lot of discomfort so he felt it was best to head back. Still, a solid hike for his first Adirondack hike, well done! He handed off one of the beers to me and I continued on alone, letting him know I’d be 4-5 hours from finishing.
The trail up to Algonquin was honestly a ton of fun. I shed a few layers as the trail was in the trees and it was very steep. Not a problem for my traction (I was actually wearing my La Sportiva Cube mountaineering boots for this hike as they were a bit warmer than my Zamberlans). Eventually I came out of the trees and it was a pretty sweet view of Algonquin waiting above. The trail was devoid of much of a packed down route, but there were plenty of cairns and other hikers to follow.
Before long, I was at the summit of Algonquin Peak, the second highest peak in New York and my 45th ADK High Peak. Super awesome view of a ton of the peaks I had previously climbed. It was really cool seeing them all and thinking about how those hikes went. It was very cold on Big Al, so I bundled up to eat a wrap and protein bar, as well as drink my quickly slushening (not a real word) Gatorade. I met a few folks on the summit including Sara and James – a bunch of them were 46ers and they were pretty excited I was nearly done. They were headed to Iroquois next as I was so I would fortunately have a few people there to celebrate with.
I began the descent down the southwest side of Algonquin on the way to Iroquois, and the wind was ridiculously cold. Not as bad as Washington, but it was enough for me to don my balaclava and ski goggles. The hike down was quick and I briefly entered a small wooded area for some respite from the wind. It was really cool seeing pockets of vegetation at the lower elevations along this ridge. I passed by Boundary Peak, which is a minor peak between Algonquin and Iroquois (too close to either of them to count as its own High Peak), and entered another small wooded area, before starting up the final push to the summit of Iroquois.
Before long, I was there. My 46er journey (minus the descent back to the car) was complete. AND it was an incredible bluebird day to boot. I cracked open the cold shot (it was in the process of freezing) and fist bumped a bunch of folks, including Sara and James’ party, who arrived shortly after. It was quite a long rest at the summit, and got lots of great photos. Sara lent me her bottle with a 46er sticker to pose with in lieu of a patch – thank you! Luckily the summit of Iroquois was not as chilly as Algonquin, so I was able to relax for a while and have a bunch of snacks and drinks.
My descent back to the car involved returning the same way as I came, mostly having to deal with descent, along with a bit of climbing up to Boundary and Algonquin again. There is a trail that runs down to Avalanche Lake from the col between Boundary and Iroquois, but it is a very steep trail and adds 3-4 kilometers to the hike. No thanks, especially as it was closing in on 6 hours on the trail by the time I left the summit of Iroquois, and Alain was probably already waiting at the Info Center for an hour and counting. So I hustled down the mountain and made excellent time – less than an hour – from Iroquois to the Wright junction. I even got some butt sliding in – super fun!
The decent from the junction started off fun, with some steep terrain which required (okay, I opted to do it!) butt sliding, but as it levelled out, the discomfort started to set in. My feet were getting pretty sore, and I was very warm, despite removing quite a few layers. I stopped briefly to take off my insulated pants – this required taking off my spikes and boots – and I effectively was hiking in my autumn attire for the remainder of the hike. However the mole skin on my left heel slipped and I started developing a blister, which likely would not have happened if I did not remove my boots.
The last 3km of the trail seemed to go on forever, but eventually the glorious parking lot was visible and I signed out of the register after nearly 8 hours on the trail, covering over 18 kilometers. Yes, my descent from Iroquois to the parking lot was pretty much exactly two hours, including a few stops to remove layers. Alain had arrived three hours previously but he was able to sit by the fire in the info center, so he was warm, but probably super bored!
After moseying around the Info Center for a bit, we headed back to Saranac Lake and immediately took a dip in the hot tub and enjoyed a celebratory beer. Super satisfying! After that, we walked an unbearable (not really, but I sure was glad it was a short walk!) 90 meters down the street to a lovely Italian restaurant called The Belvedere, and had a fantastic meal. I had a ravioli dish of some sort with sweet potato and Alain had spaghetti. We both had the soup of the day (bean/veggie) and an Amaretto coffee. Really good food, highly recommend. After that, we returned to the AirBNB to relax for the evening.
Day 3 and Closing Thoughts
We slept in a bit, getting up at around 8am. After packing up and ensuring nothing was left behind, we were on the road. Pretty smooth drive back to Oshawa, where Alain loaded his stuff in his car and took off back to Kitchener.
So, what’s next? Some may think that I’d next focus on completing the ADK 46 in winter, the New Hampshire 4000 footers (there are 48 of those) or work on the Northeast 111 (which consists of 111 4000+ foot peaks in the US northeast, including the Adirondack 46, two more peaks in the Catskills in New York, 48 in New Hampshire, 14 in Maine and 5 in Vermont).
Currently, I don’t have too much interest in completing any of these lists, mainly because of the amount of driving. That being said, I absolutely plan to hike in all of these states at some point, as I do plan on working on the US state highpoints sporadically. I’m eyeing a Presidential Traverse in New Hampshire eventually, maybe the Pemi loop and Franconia Ridge, also in New Hampshire, and Maine is also high on my list of places to hike. In addition, I plan on attending the ACC Toronto winter trips as long as I’m in the city, so I may knock off random peaks of these lists here and there, So we’ll see. If I do finish this list, it will take several years, as I will hike at a slower pace than I did the ADK 46.
My main focus is on mountaineering, and while you can do mountaineering-type trips in the northeast in the winter, I’ll be aiming to get out into the bigger mountains to work on skills and tackle some more difficult objectives. The ADK was a fun project though, definitely learned a lot about trip planning and being prepared for overnight backcountry travel.
If you’re interested in following my ADK 46 journey start to finish, I invite you to check out this page which has good repository of all my trip reports. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more exciting adventures in 2024!
Veg 'n' Alpine 