First hike of the year from AMR.  We went for one of the further ones and did Sawteeth up and down the Weld trail.  Early start and up and down the lake road with no big issues.  I was getting a little tired with the fast pace, but I pulled through.  We crossed the river, stopped and looked at Rainbow Falls a bit, and then it was up the mountain.  Once you start climbing, it keeps going.  The trail was already broken out, and we just packed it down better.  The trail was smooth, and no rocks.  It was everything I like about winter hiking.

To end out the year, I hiked Big Slide.  This was weirdly the first time I did it over the Brothers, which is the typical way most people first approach it.  

It's the first day of winter, time to start hiking winter peaks again!  Unfortunately, there was a major rain storm in the week leading up to the 21st, and that did some major road damage by Owl's Head on 73.  Coming into the day, I was concerned about water levels around the washbowl.  I totally forgot that on the ridge trail you cross the outlet 3 times.

Today, I completed my Catskill 3500 on Slide.  I did this exact same hike in December, and remembered it being a rather easy one overall, nothing too steep, a nice view towards and just after the top, and relatively short (5.6 miles per the maps).

For my last winter hike of the year, I went back up north and decided to do a "simple" 12 mile hike, TableTop and Phelps.  The weather forecast was good, but suggested weather would be moving in later in the day.

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.

Original plan was to do just these three peaks.  We had options of adding in Hough and Dix if we felt it.  We didn't feel it.

This was the first of 4 planned end of year "Winter" hikes.  Slide is the highest point in the Catskills, and the hike up was a challenge.  Started off on 47 and first thing you face is a big stream.  Thankfully it was frozen over for us.  The trail was then a mix of ice, snow, and bare spots pretty much up until the first trail junction.  After that it was just hard packed snow and ice to the top.  Absolutely beautiful scenery, the trees holding the snow looked almost alien.  When we got to the top, the views were just amazing.  Overall, the trail wa

Saturday I went up to the end of Spruceton and did the last 3 peaks I needed in that area... South West Hunter, Hunter, and Rusk.  Planning had this at 10.8 miles, but GPS clocked in at 11.9 which may be true because of a couple of the side trails I did, plus the route I planned had a couple short cuts that were not there in reality.

So, this weekend, Michael and I spent the weekend at ADK Loj and did some hikes.... Well, the weekend weather turned back to winter, or so it seemed.  Saturday it rained all day as a drizzle and was in the 40's with wind chills on the highest of the peaks being well below freezing.  So, with that in mind we did a couple of the Lake Placid 9.