Giant Mtn 10/29

**glademaster** · 10-31-2006, 10:13 PM

After driving up to the Adirondacks in the warmth and pouring rain last Saturday, we bagged plans to ski at Whiteface and decided to simply hike Giant Mountain. As the 12th highest peak in the Adirondacks, Giant stands around 4700 feet tall, the trail climbs 3500 feet in 3.5 miles, so there is some serious vertical gain along the way. We started out in light snow and muddy trail conditions at the bottom, but as we gained altitude, mud gave way to snow and ice, and light snow turned into driving graupel with winds that had us fearing for our safety among wildly swaying trees.

Ascending via one route, we reached the summit to find heavy snow falling and wind gusts of 55-70 miles/hour by our estimation (I got blown over flat onto my ass at one point). Needless to say, we didn't linger for long on the summit, and decided to descend via another trail that would leave us 3 miles up the road from our car. Thinking that we could simply hitch back in no time proved to be a bad call when the descent took longer than planned and we reached the road in the dark.

With two miles of roadside walking down and one to go, a car going the other direction spit-balled, pulled over to the shoulder and offered us a ride. Being cold, wet and tired, we accepted, and climbed into the van, noticing that the friendly guy tossed 2 rifles out of the front seat and into the back to make room for my friend. Between that and the overpowering smell of weed in the van (or perhaps because of it) I was a little nervous about the ride; then I took a few more deep breaths, and it was all good. Even though it is still fall in the Adirondack valleys, above 3500 or 4000 feet, it is firmly winter. We guessed temps to be in the upper teens to around 20 up top, with some serious winds causing 3 to 4 foot drifts in spots.

We didn't get to make any turns, but the simple act of seeing the mountains during harsh weather via something other than a chairlift made it a special hike. It was the first winter-esque summit I'd accomplished and only my third High Peak, but I'm hoping to knock off Big Slide around Thanksgiving, unless of course there's skiing to be done.

The only photos we stopped to take were on the summit, since my camera wasn't easily accesible in my pack; however, they give an idea of the weather at the time.

Me

Me again

Non-mag friend Tim

Shitty photo, but you can see how hard it's snowing when contrasted with Tim's coat.

Just to add, this was the maiden trip for my Hestra gloves, and they performed amazingly. The summit photos of Tim were taken by me with them on, and despite being straight out of the box, they are indeed dexterous as fuck.

Round trip was around 8 miles, with 3500 feet of elevation gain, and 3250 of loss on the descent (not counting the car ride), total time was around 7 hours with a few stops to put on/take off crampons, gaiters, etc. Late fall in the Adirondacks is magical, the dramatic change between valley and summit makes you appreciate the mountains even more.