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.
At this moment, I have 19 high peaks left to complete my winter round of 46. I went out on the first day of winter and got Colden, and found that winter hiking is what I remember, and did better than I expected on the hike. That is good because I have a bunch of long hikes ahead of me. At the moment, this is what I have left, and my concerns on each of the hikes.
Today was my second winter attempt at Allen. First the good. The trail was very well packed by at least a dozen people Saturday, and by the end of today at least another dozen will have gone up it.
I have heard many good things about doing Allen mountain in the winter. Biggest being that the hike up Allen Brook is not a slippery mess of moss and slime. I was looking forward to doing this hike in the winter to see how much better it can be. I also have never come in from the south on the East River trail, so those couple miles would be new to me.
So my next trip is going to involve camping and forming a base camp to hit a total of 8 mountains.... well, actually, potentially forming 3 base camps. This is to hit everything that comes out of the Upper Works/Tahawas area of the park. The plan is to hike in to the flowed lands or lake Colden and set up camp.