The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
It’s not often that little Baker Mountain (elevation, 2,452 feet) in Saranac Lake rises above the clouds, but it did this morning. I took this picture a little after 9 a.m. A rolling ocean of clouds filled the valleys. In the distance are the High Peaks, with Mount Marcy and Algonquin Peak especially prominent. To…
Hikers will delight in one vista after another while climbing Moxham Mountain. By Phil Brown I have driven past Moxham Mountain in Minerva many times and admired its cliffs from afar. Back in the seventies and eighties, rock climbers put up more than a dozen routes on these steep slabs, but because the approach crosses…
By Phil Brown A wall of rock 1,200 feet high and a quarter-mile wide tends to stand out. Indeed, the North Face of Gothics is one of the most conspicuous landmarks of the High Peaks, drawing the eye whether you’re in downtown Lake Placid or on top of Mount Marcy. Yes, the North Face…
Author discovers a hidden treasure not far from her hometown. By Lisa Densmore I grew up in Saranac Lake and have been hiking in the Adirondacks for much of the last four decades. However, until this spring, I had not hiked up Jay Mountain, actually Jay Mountains, plural. My hiking calendar always seemed to omit…
By Phil Brown
An article on Backpacker Magazine’s website lists “America’s 10 Most Dangerous Hikes.” The one closest to the Adirondacks is Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The mountain is infamous for its fickle and sometimes extreme weather. “Known as the most dangerous small mountain in the world,” Backpacker says, “6,288-foot Mt. Washington boasts some scary stats: The…
By Phil Brown
This summer W.W. Norton plans to publish Classic Hikes of North America: 25 Breathtaking Treks in the United States and Canada. Judging by the publicity materials, it should be a magnificent-looking book, with detailed maps and more than two hundred color photos. Adirondack hikers may be disappointed to learn that no hikes in the Park…
By Phil Brown
He had a watch but was afraid to look at it. Instead he tried to gauge time by the slow movement of the stars across the sky. Alas, he forgot that he set his watch alarm for 4 a.m. “When it went off, I was disappointed,” he said. “I knew I had to wait some more.”…
By Evan Williams On a brisk winter day, my dad and I set out for a snowshoe excursion up Mount Arab, a small peak with a restored fire tower west of Tupper Lake and a panoramic view of the northern Adirondacks. Because the climb to the 2,545-foot summit is only a mile, with an elevation…
By Phil Brown
A few years ago, I was asked to test a pair of La Sportiva Karakorum boots. They’re cool-looking boots, but they struck me at first as almost too rugged for ordinary hiking. I wondered what use I could put them to in the Adirondacks. Then it hit me: slide climbing. La Sportiva bills the Karakorums…
By Phil Brown
The state has reopened two more trails in the High Peaks region, but it has no plans to reopen before next year other trails closed by Irene. Hikers can once again take the Deer Brook Trail from Route 73 to Snow Mountain, though the low-water route through the Deer Brook flume remains impassable (it was…