Mount Marcy

Mt Marcy through the trees

The highest point in New York rises to 5,344 feet and dominates the High Points Region of Adirondack Park. There are 42 peaks that rise above 4,000 feet and are considered the “high” or major peaks in the Adirondacks. (Originally, there were 46 peaks listed as above 4,000 ft, but a more recent survey found 4 to be a tad shorter.)

Mt Marcy Information Center

Compared to the high points of other states, Mt. Marcy is not really up there. It ranks as number 21 among the 50 highpoints. For a little perspective, Tennessee’s Clingman’s Dome is over 1,000 higher and the highest in the lower 48 is California’s Mt. Whitney soaring to 14,494. But 5,000 feet is nothing to scoff at. Clingman’s Dome is practically a drive up with a mere half mile paved walk to the summit from the parking lot. The shortest day hiking trail to Marcy’s summit is almost 7.5 miles one way which turns into a very long day.

All hikers must register

Even though we normally think of tree line being somewhere around 12,000 feet in western parks of Colorado and California, we climb into the alpine zone on Marcy because we are at such a northern latitude. Going above tree line has its concerns, of course. The major concern is thunderstorms. I don’t want to be the tallest thing in the vicinity. We have had our eyes on the weather forecasts for the past 3 weeks waiting for a day we felt comfortable for our climb.

Marcy Dam

Saturday looked like it would be our day, so we made all our preparations for an early start. Up at 4:30 we were able to get away from home by 5:30 and on the trail by 6:25. We were pleased with that. Our first break came at Marcy Dam at the 2.1 mile mark. We were there within an hour and again pleased with our progress. I was a bit surprised at the number of people at the dam. We were the 3rd party to register at the trailhead, but there were many, many people milling about. There are campsites and lean-tos in the area and apparently they were filled to capacity. We continued up the trail—up and up and up. There was some evidence of trial building which made this climb somewhat easier than Whiteface, but it was still very rocky, very steep, and very wet and muddy. Rock steps had been placed in a couple of the steepest sections and foot bridges had been built over some of the wettest areas.

View from Marcy Day

We stopped for a short break about 10:30. When I turned to take a seat upon a rock, I saw the summit of Marcy for the first time. Just 1.2 miles away and another 1000 feet to climb. I also noticed dark clouds coming in. We were soon out of the tall trees and into short shrubs when the rain started. We elected to continue on because we were not yet to bare rock and there was no thunder, only rain. However, our climbing was hampered by still wetter rocks and the cumbersomeness of the ponchos. A few minutes later we heard the first clap of thunder, but the rain had pretty much quit. We continued on promising each other that if there was another clap of thunder we would turn around. It wasn’t long until we started seeing hail on the ground that had come down in the brief storm. Luckily, we had been just low enough to have had only rain.

As we left the low shrubs behind and climbed out onto the bare rock the trail became the trail that I hate. I can climb a steep trail as it makes its way over rocks, but I am terrified of a steep solid rock surface. I’m not afraid of heights; I’m afraid of falling, especially of falling when there is nothing to catch me for a few thousand feet. We sat down and waited for the storm to pass. When we felt it was safe, we started up, but I only got a few feet when panic set in. We were within 0.2 of a mile from the summit and I could not go up. At 12:25 we turned around.

The 7.3 miles down was grueling. There were literally hundreds of people on the mountain. There was always someone in the way or wanting by. I was hiking slower, so I always stepped aside to let folks pass. That cost us a lot of time during the course of the afternoon. Climbing up over the rocks is easier for me than going down. My legs are short and I often can’t reach the next step so I found myself sitting down and sliding to the rock or path below. With 200+ people and 4 dogs having passed this way, the bogs which didn’t seem too bad going up were quagmires on the return trip. The wood in some of the foot bridges was impossible to see for the mud. All this made for very slow going.

I had made a mistake at the beginning of the trip by not turning around when my foot started to hurt. I have a tendon, I think, on the top of my right foot that seems to get knotted up from time to time. This was the case today and I petted and pampered it, but after so many miles there was nothing I could do to keep it from hurting. Plus, after about 10 miles of rocks, the bottoms of my feet were so sore it was hard just to take a step.

After 14 and a half miles, 12 hours 25 minutes, we finally stumbled to the truck. We were two tired hikers and I would be happy to never hike again if I could only get my feet out of these boots.

Mt Mansfield, Vermont

Since there are no Mt Marcy summit photos, I have included photos of some other highpoints done as day hikes.

Mt Washington, New Hampshire

White Butte, North Dakota