I don't always climb the highest peaks in the Adirondacks. I hone my skills and endurance doing shorter hikes, sometimes more challenging, or remote. And these days with rising gas prices, my trips to the Adirondacks are going to be fewer and farther between.

Buck Mountain -
My first venture into mountaineering. Not the most fearsome peak... in fact it's often used by boyscouts; but it's close to home and offers a great view. 3.3 miles to the top, 2333 foot elevation, so roughly an hour and a half to the top. After doing this 4 times and getting my ascent time to under an hour, I felt I was in proper physical condition to take a shot at the Adirondacks. My first shot was Marcy, which I tackled despite the terrible weather.

Knob Mountain -
With so many of the peaks in the Adirondacks being untrailed (the best ones naturally), I felt I should try to climb an untrailed mountain in the Adirondacks. Rather then risk climbing in the High Peaks area and getting lost, I went after a mountain called Knob Lock. It was only a mile away from Route 9, and another mile and half from the nearest trail. I managed to successfully climb and descend the peak for the most part. I ended up on a private driveway coming back, but that's just a larger trail in my mind.

Mount Washington
Climbing this beast was more of an exercise in intrepidness then adventuring. Let's be honest, a mountain that has a road AND train to the top usually isn't even worth mentioning; except I climbed up the face of the ravine while all the soccer moms took the road to the top to justify the cost of their SUV [FYI: Its a paved road, with lines, guardrails, etc... not a real mountain road]. Still, being one of the tallest peaks in the Northeast USA, having the records it hold (most killed hikers, and highest wind at 231Mph) be conquered by my boots was an accomplishment.

Owls Head
Not the original mountain I planned to go hiking, but a welcome warmup as I didn't do any hiking beforehand this season. After this I would try to attack Saddleback from the northeast side up Chicken Coop Brook. The trail was only 2 miles, but offered an excellent view of Big Slide and the Brothers.

Avalanche Lake
While not a mountain, the lake itself is in the middle of 2 of the tallest peaks in the Adirondacks. The view down the lake and above the lake makes the trip worthwhile, and in winter adds to the journey. The wind that whips up the valley in the summer can be called "refreshing" but in the winter is called "dangerous" ranging from 20 to 50MPH dropping the temperature an additional 20 degrees.

Mount Adams
Not one of the highest peaks in the Adirondacks, it does offer a fire tower with an unobscured 360 panorama of the entire high peaks region. High winds ripped off the roof last winter, but if you're going to hike the 3.5miles to get there then you should be ready for that.

Pikes Peak
The Adirondacks are nice, but since I was only an hour away from the highest point in the continental US (next up is Mt McKinley in Alaska), I wasn't going to squander the opportunity. The trail up was too steep for me, despite my experiences in the ADK's. No matter, I drove to the top and left 45min... as a storm rolled in. If I had hiked, I would have climbed into a cloud.