Hi. I got back last night from a 3 day hike to Marcy. Started at Upper Works and spent the night at Uphill shelter. Marcy and Lake Tear the next day, and stayed again at Uphill, then back out to Upper Works and home yesterday. I didn't realize until I got home that I had somehow erased ALL MY PICTURES for a slide presentation. Awful.

I want to go back up and try and "re-do" some of the shots, but can't take three days. I'm looking for advice on the fastest way to get to Marcy and Lake Tear, doing it as a day trip. Same route? Or start somewhere else? Upper Works to Marcy and back seems like it would be quite a long day. Any other ways that might be quicker? Help!!! Thanks for any advice.
Mac

From the adk loj parking lot it's like 4 hrs to the summit. I haven't been to lake tear of the sky let, I really wanna go there.

Lake Tear and Marcy can be reached in a day from the Loj parking lot. There's less daylight this time of year though, so...

The trails would be the Van Hoevenberg, Avalanche Pass, Lake Arnold, and Calamity Brook

Several years ago I did Marcy and Skylight as a day hike via Lake Tear from Upper Works. It was a long but reasonable day trip in the summer for someone in pretty good shape. I wouldn't recommend trying it as a day outing this time of year due to limited daylight and expected challenging trail conditions. Wait to go back until next summer if you don't have the time to do an overnight.

I recently did a dayhike from the Loj of Marcy. I came in and went up to Table via then over Marcy, down to Lake Tear. From there I went up Cliff mountain and then back out out past Lake Arnold, but you could a) reclimb Marcy, or b) head out via Lake Arnold or Avalanche Pass. Avalanche Lake and Pass are awesome if you have never been to those spots.

Very doable dayhike from the loj. Even faster if you ski it once the snow comes.

Just use a teleporter silly!

Snowshoed up Marcy once in winter, would've done Skylight and Tear of the Clouds as well but the Loj people informed us the area had melted and refrozen, and was dangerous at that point. We started mid-morning and finished by dusk.