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The Adirondack Mountains located at the northern of New York state have 46 peaks over 4,000 feet in elevation. People that have climbed to the summit of all the 46 peaks are known as Fourty-Sixers. If you are in the Adirondacks area, you can ask anyone that lives there if they are a Fourty-Sixer, they will know exactly what you are asking. The first recorded Fourty-Sixer was in 1925 and since then more than 10,000 people were recorded as having climbed all the peaks.

The peaks:

Rank Mountain Elevation (feet)

1 Marcy 5344

2 Algonquin 5114

3 Haystack 4960

4 Skylight 4926

5 Whiteface 4867

6 Dix 4857

7 Gray 4840

8 Iroquois Peak 4840

9 Basin 4827

10 Gothics 4736

11 Colden 4714

12 Giant 4627

13 Nippletop 4620

14 Santanoni 4607

15 Redfield 4606

16 Wright Peak 4580

17 Saddleback 4515

18 Panther 4442

19 TableTop 4427

20 Rocky Peak 4420

21 Macomb 4405

22 Armstrong 4400

23 Hough 4400

24 Seward 4361

25 Marshall 4360

26 Allen 4340

27 Big Slide 4240

28 Esther 4240

29 Upper Wolf Jaw 4185

30 Lower Wolf Jaw 4175

31 Street 4166

32 Phelps 4161

33 Donaldson 4140

34 Seymour 4120

35 Sawteeth 4100

36 Cascade 4098

37 South Dix 4060

38 Porter 4059

39 Colvin 4057

40 Emmons 4040

41 Dial 4020

42 Grace Peak 4012

43 Blake Peak 3960

44 Cliff 3960

45 Nye 3895

46 Couchsachraga 3820

MacNaughton* 4000

*Although the most recent USGS measures MacNaughton at 4000′, 46ers are not required to climb it.

My husband and I love the Adirondacks area, we've been there visiting a bunch of times in the Winter. We are not Fourty-Sixers, we are Oners! We went there in the Fall of 2018 and hiked the easiest of the 46 hight peaks: Cascade Mountain – Peak #36. Even though considered the easiest, it's still quite a hike and especially for someone with no hiking experience. It involves a bit of climbing over rocks but can be done even by beginners.

We are not very experienced hikers and brought way more stuff than we needed in our backpacks, total rookies, but I guess better safe than sorry, right? It got quite cold when we got to the summit so I was happy to have carried a warm jacket, a hat and gloves. We used poles and were happy to have them as they were very helpful in some spots.

It took us 7 hours to go up and come back down, we took our time stopping for pictures and enjoying the day. We were lucky to be there on a lovely Fall day when lots of trees had beautiful colored leaves.

The next day we hiked Mount Van Hoevenberg, which is not one of the 46 peaks, but the view from the summit was incredible! In fact, from there we were closer to the top of the trees than from the summit of Cascade Mountain, and the vibrancy and color of the leaves was more pronounced. I was really glad we chose that mountain, as it wasn't difficult and the view was spectacular. I had never seen the colored trees in the peak of Fall from the top before and that's a memory I will remember forever.

The Mount Van Hoevenberg trail is one of the newest trails in the Adirondacks, it was opened to the public in October 2018 exactly on the weekend we were there. The trailhead is located at the Olympic Sports Complex. On the way down, we got a bit confused about which way to go and ended up taking the wrong way, we ended up at the Bobsled course, which was interesting to see.

There is a lot to explore in the Adirondacks, the views there in the Winter are also gorgeous. Sometimes driving through the mountain notches we see some ice climbers up high on frozen waterfalls! It's pretty dramatic, I cannot imagine doing that but some people do! I marvel at the level of adventurousness we see in mountain areas like the Adirondacks.

Be sure to take a peak at this video, especially at the part from Mount Van Hoevenberg, it's really breathtaking!

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=381156198918915123

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