Trip to Giant Mountain

Giant of the Valley

Having conquered eight mountains of the Adirondacks in just five weeks, including two high peaks, I thought we were well prepared to take on Giant mountain. Giant is also called Giant of the Valley because you get a great view of the Keene Valley from the summit. 

At a 4, 626 feet elevation it is one of the Adirondack High Peaks.

When preparing for a hike, we do our homework and read the reviews so that we know what to expect. It's also important to know how long a hike takes on average, that way we know when to take off so that we won't get caught on a mountain in the dark. Were we prepared to take on Giant? Not really.  It was physically harder than I expected.

We arrived at the trail head around 11:00 AM and didn't waste any time. We signed in at the register and started the climb. According to the reviews, you start climbing from the parking lot and never stop. They weren't kidding. Unlike mountains such as Weakly, Goodnow, or Blackbear, there are no flat surfaces, it's straight up, mercilessly.

Mark was using an app that measures one's heartbeat. His was 64 at the start, mine was 66. After about 30 minutes, his was 92 and mine was 122.

We encountered large rock scrambles, and went up and up. About an hour into the ascent we had a beautiful view, and took a short break to admire the scenery.

As we progressed, the rock scrambles changed to large rock slabs, some steep, some easy. 

Two hours into it, a couple of people came down from the mountain. I had been thinking we've got to be almost there. They told us we still had an hour and a half to go. That was hard to believe.

We missed the not so well marked trail once and ended up on a ledge with a breath taking view.

Back on the trail, and back to climbing up steep sections. We reached the summer after 3 and a half hours. While the view was gorgeous, it was somehow a little disappointing. The summit wasn't as large as I had imagined after seeing some photos, and there was no 360 view. I know, I know,  I was getting spoiled after the 360 views from Cascade and Ampersand. As expected, it was windy up on the summit. We sat down a while, ate our sandwich, took a few pictures, and decided to descend and sit on the ledge we had seen earlier.

Here is a view from the summit.

One the way down, we crossed paths with several people going up. I hurried to tell them they were almost there, and they all loved to hear that :)
Back on the ledge, we again enjoyed the view, and especially the solitude, there were no other people near us. We ate a snack, and took more pictures. It was just a lovely view. The golden hour had just set in, the sun was starting to sink lower, gracefully colouring the valley with gentle tints. I could have stayed there forever, but the prospect of having to climb down in the dark just wasn't appealing.

We made it off the mountain just before dark. It was a great climb and a lovely day.

As usual, I took a picture of my boots. Those boots have done many miles now!

... and here are some more pictures from our Giant trip.