McKenzie Mountain

"Great weather, tough conditions, had to break trail from start of McKenzie trail to summit. Very icy under the snow. Needed snowshoes and micro-spikes. Cold and windy at summit but warm down below. Views are only open in spots but they were nice especially with the clear skies. Had a great hike and great start to the Winter!" — hbotc • Dec 22, 2019

"After completing the Saranac Lake 6ers in April/May 2018, I went back with my niece Serena for Columbus Day weekend. Thank you for starting the Adirondack 29er Peak Challenge... we will be back next year : )" — lancehansen • Oct 6, 2018

"Was a long ol slog,, lots of mud and wet areas,step in sections and a couple sketchy spot nere the summit, Lots of view points along the way. Great solo hike with beautiful views and fall foilage!" — ramjet1963 • Oct 5, 2018

"I'd done this one in the summer and was doing it again for the winter Sixer. It was a tough slog as about 400 meters from the top it was 3 foot postholes. A great day with some great hiking buddies." — MarkEarle67 • Feb 19, 2017

"Number 4 in our quest to become Saranac Winter 6ers. Second summit of this one. This time we had no negotiate deep sticky snow and ice. Some tricky icy sections that required a bit of help and careful planning. Great day to be in the mountains, clear blue skies with few clouds." — UK-Ranger • Feb 19, 2017

"Climbed with my Dad, my sister, and 2 friends. The weather co-operated despite the forecast from the day before, and we got to see some great views from the vistas on and around the summit." — RangersApprentice • Feb 19, 2017

"Ultra 6er challenge - We met at the Green just after 4 am, signed in and we were on our way at 4:17 am. Started with McKenzie at the Jackrabbit Trail at 4:37 am and after ~3.8 miles and ~1900' of gain we reach the summit at 6:56 am. We stay for ~15 minutes and then make our way down for the trek to Haystack. We reach the junction after the 1.7 mile descent and hook the right (west) towards Haystack until we reach the cairn ~0.3 miles further. From there it is a quick shot to the summit for a beautiful view. Summit after 0.8 miles, 500' of gain at 8:29 am. From here it is ~2.7 miles back to the car to head towards Scarface. We are on trail at Scarface at 10:10 and after 3.4 miles of hot climbing we reach the summit at 12:22 pm. From here we descend and reach the car at 2:10 pm and head to Ampersand. We are on trail at Ampersand at 3:05 and gain 1800' over the next 2.7 miles (steep) to reach the summit at 5:10 pm. Stayed on summit 20 minutes and arrived back at car at 6:35 to head to St. Regis. When we arrived at St. Regis at 7:25 pm we knew we could make the sunset if we pushed it, so we pushed it and reached the summit after 3.5 miles and 1300' of gain we reach the summi..." — deb-and-rob • Jun 18, 2016

"Summited Mckenzie via the Jack Rabbit Trail near the Whiteface Inn. Upper sections of the trail were steep & extremely icy. I now knew why this was considered the toughest in the Saranac 6 challenge. Great views of Whiteface & Lake Placid from the top." — billsussdorff • Apr 6, 2016

"After coming down from Haystack I headed up to McKenzie. The ice heading up to the false summit was treacherous and probably warranted full cramp-ons. I made due with my microspikes it just took a little longer. I was happy to make it back to the car since it was either heavy snow or sleet all day long." — LGH-Tom • Mar 7, 2016

"This hike was a good test! We took on McKenzie and Haystack (a two for) as we are working on the 6er challenge and these are probably the hardest. McKenzie is steady climb over 5 miles and steep the last 1 and 1/2. We were tired and it was raining but we figured just do the .9 miles and summit Haystack. Worth it!" — hbotc • Sep 12, 2015

"Climbed solo- mud, mud, & more mud! The steep areas were not very well marked. It was a bit disconcerting to see Wanted signs attached to the trail register for the two prison escapees- certainly gave me a lot to think about during the hike! I lucked out with a bit of a view on the descent, after having hung out at the summit for over an hour hoping for the fog to clear around 13:00. A difficult and dirty hike for me, but that's 5/6 Saranac 6ers in the book for me! " — kellieirene • Jun 19, 2015

"Back up to the Dacks to finish our Winter Saranac Lake 6er challenge. Today we did McK and Haystack mtns leaving Baker mtn to finish on. Fortunately the trail was broken out by a father and son, who started before us, saving us from doing the hard work." — Nimblefoot • Mar 14, 2014

"On December 21, 2013 we met our friends to hike Baker Mountain in Saranac to begin the Saranac Winter 6r series. We had a great hike and decided we wanted to finish them all this season. Today we finished our last peak and the biggest one in the bunch - McKenzie. We started off at 1960 ' on the Jack-Rabbit trail near the Whiteface Lodge, headed towards McKenzie hiking 3.9 miles over several false peaks on the way to the 3861' summit. Just below the summit we ran into another hiker who offered up a loop trail option over the backside known as the SOA which we thought would be fun ... it was, but it was a challenge as the snow was very deep. Beautiful conditions." — deb-and-rob • Feb 8, 2014

"Day 2 of our weekend in the Daks doing the 6er challenge. Saving some time & milage by using the Jackrabbit ski trail then the hiking trail to tag Mckenzie. Enjoyed some fun & games ADK-style with the muck and mud!" — Nimblefoot • Sep 14, 2013