Customer Reviews

Exploring the 46 Adirondack High Peaks: With 282 Photos, Maps & Mountain Profiles, Excerpts from the Author's Journal, & Historical Insights

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Along with the Guide to Adirondack Trails : High Peaks Region book (which is the one you'll take with you), this book will help you plan your outing in the High Peaks. I am a very novice hiker (1-Cascade, 2-Phelps) and use this to help me decide "which one(s) do we tackle this summer"? My husband, a former Scoutmaster and conqueror of the evil Mt. Colden (success on the 4th try), really couldn't care less which one(s) we do.

Burnside groups his peaks together (geographically), so Cascade and Porter are together. Once you get used to it, it's no problem to use, and his index is well done.

At the beginning of each chapter, he provides:
*an elevation graph
*length of ascent (in feet)
*height of summit
*estimated round trip time (which includes 1 hour for lunch)
*graded difficulty of climb (from C ro A++)
*view rating (1st - 46th)

So far he's been right on. I'm trip navigator and designated wildlife watcher (read: slower than molasses in January). Then again, I get to see the foxes scurry out of my way (Cascade) and enjoy the butterflies landing on me (Porter). So if I can say his round-trip estimate is good... it is.

His graded difficulty of climb is a little more "soft". While Cascade is VERY short, as you're inserted right at the bottom of the mountain at the trailhead, it's steep and very rocky with all the exposed granite.

He grades Mt. Marcy as an "A", but you need to realize it's only for sheer length of the day you'll put in if you don't camp at the Dam (sunup - sundown, 14 hours).

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy hiking in the Adirondacks.

Mountain climbing was something that has always facinated me, but I never devoted my time to pursuing it. Then I noticed this book and I thought why not hike up mountains. I have found this book to be very informative on the adirondack mountains with its contour maps and trail markings. There are graphs depicting the elevation and the gradient on the mountains, distance, and estimated time for a hiking trip. The author includes a lot of historical perspective in his writing. I was taken so much by this that I took my wife to Lake Placid for a weekend in October 2000 and we hiked up Cascade, the first mountain described. It was a warm, clear day, the hike very enjoyable, and when we reached the top, we felt a great deal of awe and accomplishment. To quote the author, "Cascade may not be the biggest of the 46, but as the first to be surmounted, it can be the best." So for those of you who want to try something different, pick up this book and plan a hiking trip. As for me, I have 45 peaks to go.

No I am not the author but I highly recommend this book! An excellent account a "normal dad" and his two sons effort to climb the 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks. Some great history and geological info as well as detailed info on climbing the Peaks yourself. If you love nature you will love this book.

Really great read for "normal" friends & relatives- the ones who just don't "get it" as to why we peakbaggers spend so much time & resources to be able to stand on inhospitable terrain for just a few moments; the ones who naively ask, "Can't you do that in the local state park?"

If you don't know already the answer to be "NO!!!!!", then this book will help you understand why peakbagging is so addictive.

As far as hike planning, well, it is a few decades old, and some trails or trailhead access have changed. But that's also another good feature of this book: it shows what peakbagging was like back then. Nowadays we have better gear, and we can get trail navigation info just by posting on a hiking website. Back then they had to hire a guide or post something on a bulletin board.

But some things have not changed a bit since then: the views are still gorgeous. Sometimes you still don't bag the beak- either you make a wrong turn, or you heed Ed Viestur's warning that "Getting to the top is optional; getting back down is not" & turn back because of bad weather, forgetting to pack some crucial gear, an injury, etc. The author succeeds in imparting these and other experiences.