"Becca and I parked at the trailhead at 0430 to get a good spot. It wasn't the parking lot, or even the trailhead, that we thought, but it still had access to the peaks we wanted. Somewhere along the way I dropped one of my two rubber footspike things, so I went about a half mile back to find it hanging on a tree (placed by a friendly passerby). Becca posed for some test footage for an upcoming video project, and battled her leaking water bottle all day. This hike has had some of my favorite views of the Adirondacks, especially on the descent between Giant and Giant Nubble." — mikebenjamin • Sep 20, 2020

"My first high peak!!! I had dreams of hitting Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge today but didn't start early enough to feel comfortable making it to RPR and back before dark. It was pretty slow going for me, both up and down the trail. It was very wet and muddy in areas with a fair amount of rock scramble. I tend to move at turtle speed on the rocks because I'm paranoid about getting injured if I rush. The trail was gorgeous, so many view points along the way. The summit was very chilly which I anticipated. Overall, it was a wonderful experience!" — DeliriumTrigger • Sep 3, 2020

"Great Hike! This is a steep trail from rock ridge trail head, you will gain a lot of elevation in a short time frame so be prepared. A lot of nice views along the trail to stop and take a break at. There are several rock slides that are manageable both going up and on the way down. At the split from Giant to Rocky peak it takes about an hour to reach the summit of Rocky Peak, then an hour back to the split. The summit of Giant is pretty open and flat, a great spot to stop and break for lunch/dinner. You can enter the rocky ridge trail off route 73, and do an out and back trail which is what we did, took us under 6 hours even with stopping for lunch at the summit of giant. You can hike the New Russia Traverse and go from one trail head to the other one off route 9, that length is about 9 miles total. " — alexreiff • Aug 7, 2020

"Glad we brought crampons, but the going was tough with the deep patches of snow and ice at the top 1/3 of the summit. We had hoped to do RPR but a bad fall in the col between the two peaks encouraged us to rethink that idea." — mariegrimmke • May 16, 2020

"Decided it would be a good idea to climb Giant at night and shoot the stars. The journey up was incredible were mountaintop silhouettes and moonlight danced. The clouds had other ideas about the astrophotography, clouds covered the stars as my tripod came out. Would do again." — Right-On • Oct 6, 2019

"Note to self, the convergence of July and August, particularly on this first weekend in August of 2019, might just provide the ideal warm, but not too warm, low humidity, reasonably dry and low bug conditions for hiking in the Adirondacks. 08/02/2019 I took off Friday off of work to avoid parking mayhem and headed north at a leisurely morning space with my friend Eric. This would be my first high peak of the season, and his first ever high peak. I’ve been nursing a touch of plantar fasciitis all season. I hate to admit any frailty, but lets face it, we humans are plagued by aches pains and threat of limitation while we occupy our physical bodies in this life. In my case, I would argue that there is a psychologic origin of most repetitive use injuries. My left foot has been holding grief and tension for most of the last year. I argue for a psychologic origin in my case is A. I have astoundingly normal feet. And B. the pain flares during times of stress and anxiety. It became significantly worse in June after my longest hike to date of the season, a stressful and lonely solo bushwack of Erebus in pursuit of my Lake George 12ster patch. Since then I decided to shed my widows ..." — bethmorgan • Aug 2, 2019

"Very hot day, did intend on doing Rocky Mountain as well, but sun shinning down on that side of the hill at 83degrees- therefore just the one summit. Found trail good going up, hardly any mud and typical Adirondack trail with lots of rocks. Found way down a bit taxing on the knees, but overall good hike and great views along way. " — suzannerunciman • Jun 27, 2019

"Sprained ankle coming off of Rocky. Shelly wrapped it tight and I popped some Advil to hike back up towards Giant and down to the trailhead. Was pretty painful - but we made it. Got home late-ish that night. The ankle was the size of a baseball the next day. " — Ayyynne • Jun 8, 2019

"Solo thru-hike from New Russia on Memorial Day 2019. No snow left, bugs swarming below 3,000 feet, trail mostly dry and well maintained. Very steep and LOTS of ups-and-downs, ups-and-downs coming over from New Russia. Do not underestimate this route! Beautiful day and scenic hike though." — ndru-virus • May 27, 2019

"3 miles of steep uphill terrain with the Viking, with some ice and snow for color (although not enough for microspikes). 40+ mph winds and 17 degrees at the summit. Gorgeous views the whole way." — WhenKatsFly • Oct 20, 2018