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.
I started the day out with high hopes of getting both Cliff and Redfield checked off my list on the last day of winter hiking. We started off from ADK Loj and it felt weird to be hiking in just microspikes to start the hike. The hike in to Marcy Dam was the typical quick jaunt. As we crossed the bridge to the south side, the snow made a subtle but noticeable change from the firm ice to a more slippery slightly deeper and softer snow. That is when I switched over to snowshoes and they didn't come off until I hit the car at the end of the day.
We started the day as a group of 13 to get the 3 peaks in one trip. The NOAA Mountain Point forecast told us that it was going to be very windy in the morning with some snow around noon, but calming down and clearing up later in the day. With that knowledge, we decided that it was best to go in via Lake Arnold and hit Grey first. It was the right choice.
We started at the gardens about 630 and the not was about 2/3 full when though the sign at the entrance said it was full. Photos trail into JBL was super highway. Well packed and ready to follow. Crossing over at JBL to ore bed, and ore bed itself to the peak was reasonably packed, a few soft spots, but overall cannot complain at all. The steep sections were not horrible to get up, everything was rather well consolidated, although the trail did go in and out of the trees on the slide section.
Today, I, and 3 other brave souls, went up and did the MacIntyre range. This is one of the harder hikes in the park, even though it's only 10ish miles (per map). What makes is hard is that you have huge climbs up Wright and Algonquin (both sides) and you have to go over Algonquin 2 times unless you want to do one of the steepest trails in the park and add a fair amount of mileage.... that was not an option as the trail back to Loj is currently closed due to landslides in July.
Yesterday I lead a hike for ADK up Allen. I don't normally want large groups for winter hikes, they can cause issues with mismatched speeds and such, but knowing that there was feet of snow that likely needed breaking, 11 of us went out to do the hike.
Today I lead a hike for ADK up Street and Nye. These 2 are relatively smaller peaks, Nye being the second shortest of the 46. That doesn't mean they are easy. We hit the trail around 630, and the initial trail out to Indian Brook is relatively flat and was very thin snow wise. The big fear of the brook not being frozen was unfounded. The water crossing was very solid and we crossed it with no issues. The second water crossing that I didn't remember was a little more sketchy, but it was frozen enough that we didn't need to go across the tree.
Tomorrow go to Loj to attempt Street and Nye. These are 2 relatively low peaks (#31 and #45) so they should be relatively straight forward. There's only 1 way that people climb it, and that's from the HPIC, over a bit of trail, a bit of old X-country ski trails (32 Olympics I think?) then it's all herd path. The questions I have to worry about for this hike that I don't typically have to worry about for most of my winter hikes.
Yesterday, I went up Seymour. This is one of the more remote mountains to hike up here, being just over 14 miles for a single peak. That said, it's not a horrible hike until the climb. Thankfully, the road in was open all the way to the summer lot, and the lot was able to be parked in. I did put chains on my car at the winter lot as I was having a bit of trouble, but the chains worked well and I got in and out of there with no issues.
Dec 21, Colden for winter credit. Sunday I lead an ADK hike up Colden. The weather forecast during the week was of concern because of the rain coming in Thursday and then the high winds predicted on Sunday. In the end, it was a beautiful, if blustery, day to be hiking.