Route Climbed: From the Loj on trail Date Climbed: 8/19/96 and 1/1/99
Great Views- especially of the trap dike on Colden. Crawling with people in the summer but feels like the most remote place in the world in the winter.
First day after the thaw. Trail is steady from link to Marcy Dam. Ran into wet slabs above 3000ft made for sketchy scrambling at Wright/Algonquin col. Was passed by Pine Marten 200ft from summit. The view from colden was full of contrasts as alpine grasses were still brown fom winter.
Route Climbed: From Adirondak Loj Date Climbed: 07 July 2004
Started too late on this walk and ended up sweating a lot through the woods, although the afternoon weather was good, no storms. Crowds on the summit (including park rangers!)
Route Climbed: Adirondack LOJ to Summit, Return trip through Avalanche Pass Date Climbed: October 23, 2004
Perfect fall hiking day. Ice and Snow starting at about the Wright Peak Trailhead. Last 1/4 of the mountain was very icey, yet fun! Return trip through Avalanche Pass.
We skipped Wright and Iroquois due to the 15 mile trek and low daylight hours. Total trip took 9 hours with various gazing breaks inbetween.
Hiking partners were Tim Bressett (46er) and Heath LaBarre (1st high peak).
Route Climbed: Marcy Dam to Wright/Algonquin Date Climbed: August 15, 2004
The clouds had cleared from the summit shortly before we headed up. Although there was a stream running down the trail in some places, we thoroughly enjoyed the somewhat steep rock pitches before the treeline breaks. Great views of Marcy, Colden, Wallface, and Iroquois, among others, from the top. I stared at the Trap Dike and adjacent slide on Colden for a long time and I'm really looking forward to doing that route sometime soon.
Route Climbed: Adk to summit Date Climbed: June 2004
Took my good buddy Chris for his first high peak hike.
He was a bit overwhelmed at some of the steeper parts of the trail, but he was a good hiker, and was really amazed at the beauty of the view from the summit. We spent over an hour on top, and he did a lot of photography of the surrounding peaks. At the Wright junction where we stopped for a snack on the way up, we were entertained by a pair of fisher, who ran around and peered at us from a distance of only 10 feet.Chris wants to climb more of the"46". I think I created another potential 46er.
Route Climbed: From the Loj... Date Climbed: January 30, 2004
My first foray into more serious winter hiking, and one of the most challenging things I've ever done. I believe we were the only ones to do Algonquin that day, as we were hiking through fresh powder the whole way once we broke off the trail from the Loj.
We were fine in boots until we reached the tree line. At that point we downed some of our buddy Mike's trusty hot green tea, threw on our extra layers, and put on our snowshoes for the final (and most difficult) ascent. The snowshoes worked fairly well, but in spots crampons (or shoes with bigger "teeth" would've) would've been much more effective. There were several times where there wasn't much for the snowshoe teeth to grab onto, and I slid down several feet on my stomach. This was fun at first, but after the third or forth time it was just exhausting me.
We didn't spend much time at the top, as our eyelashes were literally frozen (see ChrisPierz's entry below). If you're going to do a winter hike, people aren't joking when they say make sure you're well prepared. Layering is important, as you'll go from hot and sweaty to colder than you've ever been in the span of 5 minutes. Have fun!
Bill Jirousek - Sep 6, 2005 1:10 pm
Route Climbed: Heart Lake-Lake Colden-Boundary-Iroquois-Boundary-Algonquin-Heart Lake Date Climbed: September 4, 20052nd time on Algonquin. Always fun to be high on the Mcintyres. Passed over it after doing the route up to Iroquois from Lake Colden.
franbel - Sep 6, 2005 6:57 am
Route Climbed: Direct to Algonquin Date Climbed: september 3rd, 2005My boys where great 7 and 9 years old and the made it.
Happy, because of the mud. Kid will be kid.
woodstrider - Aug 10, 2005 2:04 pm
Route Climbed: From the Loj on trail Date Climbed: 8/19/96 and 1/1/99Great Views- especially of the trap dike on Colden. Crawling with people in the summer but feels like the most remote place in the world in the winter.
James_W - Jul 20, 2005 1:48 pm
Route Climbed: From Loj Date Climbed: April, 2004First day after the thaw. Trail is steady from link to Marcy Dam. Ran into wet slabs above 3000ft made for sketchy scrambling at Wright/Algonquin col. Was passed by Pine Marten 200ft from summit. The view from colden was full of contrasts as alpine grasses were still brown fom winter.
stillalive - Jul 12, 2005 9:54 pm
Route Climbed: Van Hoevenberg trail from adk loj Date Climbed: July 10th 2005Trail was crowded and muddy, with waterfalls in strange places, due to three days of torrential rain before the sky cleared that morning.
Also decided to ascend Wright Peak at the last min., Algonquin is very rewarding after seeing it from the summit of Wright first.
Deep Woods Off is ineffectual, recommend stronger bugspray.
Challenging trail!
woodstrider - Apr 28, 2005 4:19 pm
Route Climbed: Trail Date Climbed: Jan 1, 99 and Mar 7, 99Very cold and windy both times
Pawel Krol - Mar 3, 2005 12:52 pm
Route Climbed: Normal trail Date Climbed: Nov 21 2004Nice trail.
doctorpeakbagger - Feb 21, 2005 5:03 pm
Route Climbed: from the dam Date Climbed: September 13, 2004Beautiful views. Great day.
edog2005 - Feb 4, 2005 5:55 pm
Route Climbed: From Adirondak Loj Date Climbed: 07 July 2004Started too late on this walk and ended up sweating a lot through the woods, although the afternoon weather was good, no storms. Crowds on the summit (including park rangers!)
Rob A - Jan 29, 2005 10:43 pm
Route Climbed: Trail From heart Lake Date Climbed: July 2002High Peak #2. Great climb with awesome views. Started down late. Got back to Marcy Dam after dark.
Steve Gruhn - Jan 26, 2005 10:50 pm
Route Climbed: From Adirondak Loj Date Climbed: May 1988Easy hike during breakup. Mud wasn't very bad at all.
climbmn - Nov 30, 2004 3:14 am
Route Climbed: Algonquin-Avalanche Lake Date Climbed: November, 2001One of my first climbs. Did Algonquin, Iroquois and Wright in one day. Truly an amazing place!
Ethan Stansbury - Oct 27, 2004 1:06 pm
Route Climbed: Adirondack LOJ to Summit, Return trip through Avalanche Pass Date Climbed: October 23, 2004Perfect fall hiking day. Ice and Snow starting at about the Wright Peak Trailhead. Last 1/4 of the mountain was very icey, yet fun! Return trip through Avalanche Pass.
We skipped Wright and Iroquois due to the 15 mile trek and low daylight hours. Total trip took 9 hours with various gazing breaks inbetween.
Hiking partners were Tim Bressett (46er) and Heath LaBarre (1st high peak).
jaikansi - Oct 7, 2004 7:30 pm
Route Climbed: from heart lake Date Climbed: october 1 2004BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY WITH EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL VIEWS. DEFINATELY WORTH THE EFFORT.
Bill Jirousek - Aug 17, 2004 1:32 pm
Route Climbed: Marcy Dam to Wright/Algonquin Date Climbed: August 15, 2004The clouds had cleared from the summit shortly before we headed up. Although there was a stream running down the trail in some places, we thoroughly enjoyed the somewhat steep rock pitches before the treeline breaks. Great views of Marcy, Colden, Wallface, and Iroquois, among others, from the top. I stared at the Trap Dike and adjacent slide on Colden for a long time and I'm really looking forward to doing that route sometime soon.
sajego - Aug 3, 2004 10:25 am
Route Climbed: From a leento on Lake Colden Date Climbed: August 2000We climbed up the "back" side of the mountain after coming through Avalanch pass in the pouring rain and making camp in a Leento near Lake Colden.
There were bears, but we spent a relaxing day rigging a way to tie up our food so that the bears ate our neighbor's food instead.
The hike to the summit was a good climb up slabs of rock. I'd rather climb on flat, steep slabs than steps or erroded dirt trails.
dspal - Jul 31, 2004 4:46 pm
Route Climbed: Van Hovenburg trail to Algonquin/MacIntyre trail Date Climbed: May 2000steep, with 3 feet of packed snow and ice, slow pace and care required without crampons
hekki6 - Jul 7, 2004 9:06 pm
Route Climbed: Adk to summit Date Climbed: June 2004Took my good buddy Chris for his first high peak hike.
He was a bit overwhelmed at some of the steeper parts of the trail, but he was a good hiker, and was really amazed at the beauty of the view from the summit. We spent over an hour on top, and he did a lot of photography of the surrounding peaks. At the Wright junction where we stopped for a snack on the way up, we were entertained by a pair of fisher, who ran around and peered at us from a distance of only 10 feet.Chris wants to climb more of the"46". I think I created another potential 46er.
Josh - Jul 6, 2004 7:07 pm
Date Climbed: 2nd July 2004Reached the summit at 3 pm. It was a beautiful day except for the wind which made the summit a bit cold.
Brian Pierz - Jun 14, 2004 8:10 am
Route Climbed: From the Loj... Date Climbed: January 30, 2004My first foray into more serious winter hiking, and one of the most challenging things I've ever done. I believe we were the only ones to do Algonquin that day, as we were hiking through fresh powder the whole way once we broke off the trail from the Loj.
We were fine in boots until we reached the tree line. At that point we downed some of our buddy Mike's trusty hot green tea, threw on our extra layers, and put on our snowshoes for the final (and most difficult) ascent. The snowshoes worked fairly well, but in spots crampons (or shoes with bigger "teeth" would've) would've been much more effective. There were several times where there wasn't much for the snowshoe teeth to grab onto, and I slid down several feet on my stomach. This was fun at first, but after the third or forth time it was just exhausting me.
We didn't spend much time at the top, as our eyelashes were literally frozen (see ChrisPierz's entry below). If you're going to do a winter hike, people aren't joking when they say make sure you're well prepared. Layering is important, as you'll go from hot and sweaty to colder than you've ever been in the span of 5 minutes. Have fun!