Dial Mountain

"Hiked with Tom. The weather was good, not too cold or windy. We saw a lot of groups during the hike. Snowshoes all day except for the Lake Road. We brought the sleds and used them a ton on the way down from Nippletop. " — Kim-Stilson • Feb 22, 2020

"Started at the AMR with Kim around 7:30. Parking lot was already packed and there were very few spaces left. We decided to go up the Leach Trail thinking that most people would walk the road and head up from Elk Pass. We had a couple groups in front of us and one that we played leap frog with throughout the day. The weather was very good. We had to take some layers off and ended up in mid layers for the majority of the day. Snowshoes on everywhere except for the Lake Road. Decent views from Noonmark shoulder and Dial. Socked in on Nippletop. We used our sleds to make quick work of the descent. " — LGH-Tom • Feb 22, 2020

"Tom, Peter and I joined the Hudson Valley Hikers doing a loop of Dial, Nippletop, Colvin and Blake. Before we got to Bears Den Peter and I found the hiking pace too fast for some reason so we detached ourselves from the group. We continued at our own pace over the three peaks then out to Lake road without doing the o/b of Colvin and Blake. We got our best views from Nippletop while eating our lunch. Got a clear view of Colvin and Blake in the foreground and Skylight and Marcy further back. Marcy looked like it had some fresh snow on top since our visit three days ago. To our right the ridge of Sawteeth to Gothics and the Wolf Jaws were in the clouds. I forgot how steep the drop is from the junction below Nippletop to the junction with the trail out to Blake. From there on the trail got more mellow. The whole day the trails were way more drier than the trails out of Marcy Dam/Lake Colden area." — Nimblefoot • Oct 26, 2019

"Beautiful snowshoeing conditions. 3C on January 5th. Started early and only saw 5 people on the trail (3 Americans & 2 Canadians). Kind of regret not finding a path to Noonmark." — decentdiversions • Jan 5, 2019

"Dial was # 6 for us. It was a long hike, muddy, rain, foggy, with no views at the summit which was at 2:57 pm, but we still had an incredible day. I lost a set of hiking poles between Nippletop and Dial, I’m sure someone will find them. See post for Nippletop for more details about this hike. " — pacofive_o • Dec 7, 2018

"This was Sean's finish of his NE111 and Walter's finish of his 46r. Our group got together and headed up Bear Den Mtn first. Low cloud cover today. Could barley make out Dial. We then went on towards Dial. No views today. We then dealt with mud on the way to Nippletop for the finish. Plenty of treats and champaign. The longer we stayed, the more the cloud cover lifted. So we had better views by the time we left. We returned the same way we entered. I then drove home after this hike." — newenglandwarrior • Oct 13, 2018

"46er #15! Blazing hot day, long hike, exhausted. When we first arrived at the peak I thought that there were no views. But on climbing up the big rock.. there they were! Another rewarding spot." — RangersApprentice • Jun 30, 2018

"My very first High Peaks! Hiking to Dial, Nippletop Mountain And five other summits to make for an Epic day in the mountains with some great friends,, Very warm day @ 42degrees with the humidity factor and the black flies were biting,, great breeze on the summits, Beautiful day to be in the Adirondack Mountains" — ramjet1963 • Jun 30, 2018

"Dial after the ascent of Nipple Top with my wife Brigitte Doyon As we left Nipple Top, the snow started to melt a lot. The sun was more present. It was slippery going down to Dial. We were surprise to notice that the view was not as bad as all the comments we had read on several blogs or Facebook page. It's not a 360 view but still pleasant. It is at that time that we noticed that the sun was going down and fast. Our descent was quite long. We were hopping to at least get to Lake Road before we had to use the head lamps. Which we did...just in time! This was a fantastic day with 2 great summits." — CPaquin • Sep 30, 2017

"It was raining when we started, then when we got to the trail to Nippletop, it was snowing (wet snow). The sky cleared a little in time for the summit to have a view. We went back by Dial. Super long day." — hiking-Brigitte • Sep 30, 2017

"Started out at 5:30am, made it to the summit of Dial at 9:45. Trail to Dial was fairly easy - no rocks or boulders and the ground was soft. Not too steep either. Continued on to Nippletop." — jackmhare • Jun 17, 2017

"Nippletop & Dial counterclockwise loop. Solo, #'s 28&29/46. Today was absolutely stellar early fall weather in the Daks. High 30's starting out at 0715 from St Huberts, with an overall top temp of around 70, bright blue cloudless skies! After summiting Nippletop I meandered back over to the junction & continued over to Dial. The trail between the two peaks is really fantastic- soft with pine needles and very undulating, not crazy ups or downs. Quite a treat after coming up the Elk Pass trail to Nippletop. On the summit I met two guys, one from NJ & one from PA who were finishing their 46ers that day on Nippletop. They said they had started the high peaks in 2002! We chatted for a bit and took photos for eachother- they headed out and I sat and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before continuing on my way- to Bear Den, & Noonmark Shoulder. The trail down was interesting, particularly the new growth on Noonmark Shoulder following a fire that occurred there some years ago. My knee was being a real sonofagun about 4 miles away from my car of course, so I was glad I did the loop the way I did to avoid large descent steps on rocks. All told this loop took me a touch over 7.5hrs, includi..." — kellieirene • Sep 16, 2016

"Another beautiful Adirondack day, my wife Deb and I took on Nippletop via Lake Road to Elk Pass to the junction between Nippletop and Dial up to Nippletop summit. Then after a snack and some photos, out we went over Dial, BearDen and the Shoulder of Noonmark. Great views, Sunny and Warm weather conditions on Elk pass are steep and a bit wet. But a great hike!" — hbotc • Aug 27, 2016

"Enjoyed a great hike to Indian Head, Fish Hawk Cliffs, Nippletop and Dial with the kids. The fall colors were beautiful. You add on an extra 1.2 miles or so and a little topo by heading in via Indian Head and FishHawk Cliffs but they are well worth it - short steep climb to great views. The ascent up Elk Pass to Nippletop was steep but we felt it was easier than heading down in which is what we have always done. Great views from Nip and Dial today as well. All togther it was ~14.0 miles with ~5100' of gain." — deb-and-rob • Oct 11, 2015

"Après une courte pause bien méritée, nous avons amorcé notre chemin vers le sommet de Dial. Il faut dire que nous étions bien contents de descendre plutôt que de monter, la fatigue s'est vite fait sentir lorsque nous avons débuter la montée finale vers Dial. Une fois au sommet, qui est encore une fois un promontoire rocheux, nous avons pu prendre une autre pause sans être dérangé par aucun autre groupe de randonneurs. La vue du sommet de Dial est tout aussi impressionnante. Ensuite s'est amorcée la descente finale par la H. G. trail. À un certain moment, il y a une section où le sentier grimpe de quelques mètres à nouveau, je peux affirmer que nous étions à bout de ces montées! Le reste du chemin s'est fait sans incidents et faits majeurs, nous sommes arrivés à la barrière d'entrée 7h30 après notre départ, un bon rythme quoi!" — PL5 • Jun 20, 2015

"Hiked in from AMR - Leach trail - Vear Den to Dial and down Elk to cut off and out. Very cold, deep snow. Trail broken from Leach to Dial, we broke from Dial to Ntop, 1 - 3' deep. Temps and winds were frigid at higher elevations - -38 at Dial and -42.5 on Nippletop. On trail at 8 am, off at 5pm - roughly 13.6 miles with no more than 45 mins total stopping to talk with hikers and on summit." — deb-and-rob • Jan 10, 2015

"8th ADK High Peak. We began our ascent of Dial Mountain from the Lake Road Trail at AMR Gate. We had initially planned to hike Street and Nye today, but considered otherwise when the weather forecast indicated potential thunderstorms. We did not want to be on a unmarked/maintained trail in storms. We signed in around 7:30 am with the 1 mile hike up Lake Road. We took the H.G. Leach Trail leading us over Bear Mountain, up over Dial and then on to Nippletop. We took a shorter, but much stepper descent through Elk Pass on return. While there were no areas on this trail which felt particularly challenging or steep in grade or rock scrambles, the ascent up Dial felt long, tiring, hot and humid. We were both using our new day packs for the first time on this hike, and felt the extra weight initially. The summit is open and provides for some great views of the back side of the Great Range. There was again no benchmark no the summit. Highlights: no major grades of extreme steepness!, good view on ascent to Bear Den, good view from summit of Dial, new day packs/hydration systems made for easier hike and hydration!" — elizabethsweet • Jul 4, 2012

"Another Winter hike, went up Dial via Bears Den, weather wasn't great, lot of snow delayed us, timing was not good so we didn't proceed to Nippletop. We were going to camp out but we got out in one day." — hbotc • Feb 16, 1991

"Joy, Phil, Frank, Johnny and I climbed Dial from Bear Den, then summited Nippletop. Extremely hot, so we ran out of water on the summit of Nippletop and had to pump from Gill Brook." — barbaratraver • Aug 13, 1988