Planning for High Peak #4

     This year, I aspire to summit at least six high peaks. While achieving more would be wonderful, it is not essential. My next climb will be completed in late June of 2025. i am trying to figure out which peak I am going to summit, as it is becoming difficult to plan the peaks as I am slowly making my way into the center of the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness zone.

    To say that I am stressed or more accurately anxious is hitting the nail on the head so to speak. Then I found a campground that is extremely close to Cliff, so I thought let's tackle those two. Once again, I started on my research of summitting Cliff and Redfield and ultimately chose not to summit those two mountains so early on. As you can see with the multitude of options that I have I am starting to see that I am going to have to be strategic with my different climbs as my vacation time is limited just like anyone else's time. Thus, I am going to have to go by distance and duration of summitting the rest of the High Peaks.

    I was thinking that I might summit Allen. Started to do my research on said mountain and came to the conclusion that would not be feasible in a day as the base is roughly 20 miles in, which means that I would have to plan to backpack and spend a few days in the wilderness. Therefore, at this point in time I really need to take a look at the map that I purchased in the beginning that has all the high peaks and the trails that you can take to get to the summit.

    Upon further youtube.com videos I have come to the conclusion that I am going to summit Tabletop in June. At least that is my plan a. I like to come up with a plan b. that can come at a later time. Still figuring out plan b. I may try summitting Mount Marcy.

    Tabletop according to my research is out and back 9.8 miles. This distance is do able in a day. I am also finding it increasingly difficult to find a high peak to hike due to the distance that is required to cover with the mountains that are left. So I am thinking that here on out after this year i am going to have to plan it peak by peak, as well as very carefully.

    So far I have decided to climb tabletop as my next High Peak, and then with my sister in law and maybe brother as well as nephews giant and RPR. That will give me 3 more peaks completed. This gets me to half of my summer hiking goal complete.

I have already discussed with my sister-in-law the idea and she is excited to go on a hike. She is ultimately leaving what peak we hike up to me. So originally, I was thinking of summitting Algonquin, but upon further research and videos I don’t think that is feasible due to the potential difficulty of the climb. Therefore, I came to the conclusion of potentially doing either big slide or giant. They are not sure when they will be coming out this summer. Thinking of doing one of the longer treks. So, upon further discussion, we are in agreement to summit giant and RPR as a family.

As far as summits that I will be doing this summer I am planning on summitting Marcy, Tabletop and Big Slide. Still working on my 6^th and final climb for the summer.

I have an idea for next summer as I am thinking that I am going to have to start camping inside the wilderness which I am hoping to involve my brother who would love to go backpacking again. I will have to talk to him about it.

Recommendation: I just bought a book titled Hiking the Adirondack 46 High Peaks. I strongly recommend investing in this book as this book shows you pictures of the different summits of each peak. The book also gives you a brief history of the peak itself and then goes on to take you turn by turn to the summit itself with a map of the trail at the end of each chapter. Also has extra chapter on other hikes that you can do if you choose to do so. Extremely helpful and informative. The author of the book is Jonathan Zaharek.