The winter of 2025 to 2026 was a big winter for my hiking.  I started the winter with big ambitions.  Hike 20 peaks and get my winter 46er rocker.  It was doable, I had 2 or 3 weekends more than the number of hikes I needed.  I had high hopes.

Started the winter strong with a hike up Colden, but then weather hit and I didn't feel good enough to go get Cliff and Redfield, turning around at Marcy Dam.  I then focused on the Seward range getting them the next 2 weekends, and then off to Street and Nye.  Then we had our first really cold weekend with high winds and predicted -40+ wind chills.  This delayed my next hike, which was my longest one of the winter... Allen.

We then got another frigged weekend before I went back out... and got the Macs, Saddleback, MSG, and then failed again at Cliff and Redfield as I was just not feeling it after the MSG hike.  Weather had changed at that point, and I was not sure what the trails were going to be like, and I'm kicking myself for not going out.  I could have gotten Marshall, but instead I stayed home and continued to recover.  Then I finished the season on the last day and got Cliff.

This has left me with 4 peaks I need to do next winter.  If all goes well, this is 3 hikes.  I have yet to get Redfield even though I attempted 3 times, Marshall, Basin and I want to finish on Haystack, my favorite peak.  I plan to start next winter on Marshall and then get Redfield the following weekend.  Basin and Haystack are not ideal to do early in the season due to the short days, but if I spend a couple nights at JBL, I can cut 7 miles off the day, and not spend toooo much time hiking in the dark, so hopefully by the end of January 2027 I'll be done with my winter 46er round.

It was an amazing winter to be out.  I learned new things, and have seen conditions I've only heard of, and truly feared.  Now that I have hiked in grey out conditions, I am more confident that I can do it again in the future.  I am much more confident that I know these mountains well, and have the knowledge and skills I need to lead people on these hikes.

The winter wasn't all good though.  I did make my own share of mistakes.  The worst one was on the Sewards where I was just not layered correctly for the temperatures.  I had too much on at the start, I got wet, and then I got frostbite on my fingers.  Nothing major, but just enough that I have suffered minor neuropathy that has been aggravated multiple times since.  It's mostly gone now, but the last hike up Cliff did bring a bit of it back.  Hopefully it's not something I have to deal with every winter.

In the end, over these last 3 months, I have hiked 138.6 miles over 101.2 hours.  I have climbed 35,709 feet of elevation which is 6.76 miles of up and down.  I have averaged 1.37 mph including all the breaks.  Only 1 of the hikes was what I consider too slow, but I was acting as a trip leader and we had a couple slow people and issues with that hike.  My goal was always 1.5, but anything over 1.2 I consider a win.

I've also crossed a milestone of sorts since I started keeping track.  Since 2020, I have hiked 1449 miles over 1000 hours.  1000 hours of hiking in 6 years (I started keeping track on March 7, 2020)  Here's to the next 1000 hours.

Winter 46

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