Region
Highlights
- Saddleback Mountain is an ADK 46er in the High Peaks Wilderness Area of Adirondack State Park.
- Part of the Great Range of the Adirondack Mountains.
- The 0.2 mile long summit ridge has peaks at each end with a pronounced dip between, giving it the profile of a saddle.
- Flanked to the southwest by Basin Mountain and to the east by Gothics.
Routes
19 summits • 16.5 mi • 4,830 ft gain • 11 hr 11 min
17 summits • 18.2 mi • 5,678 ft gain • 12 hr 28 min
1 summit • 14.2 mi • 3,070 ft gain • 10 hr 39 min
1 summit • 20.2 mi • 5,395 ft gain • 14 hr 7 min
1 summit • 23.2 mi • 4,602 ft gain • 13 hr 41 min
1 summit • 23.5 mi • 7,783 ft gain • 14 hr 57 min
1 summit • 24.2 mi • 6,743 ft gain • 13 hr 36 min
Latest summits
"Attempt to hit both Gothics and Saddleback from the Ore Bed trail. Made it past the Gothics cables and was thwarted at the first slab after. With a full pack in wet conditions I could not get a good grip on the rocks and kept slipping back down while bugs swarmed my face. Never had to abort a hike so close to the summit before, but there's a first time for everything I guess. Made it up Saddleback without any more struggle than usual. Very muddy, but what else is new?" — ndru-virus • Aug 6, 2023
"Got to the Garden lot around 5:30 am, but that wasn't early enough as the lot was full of cars. We turned back and parked at the Rooster Comb parking lot, adding a mile and a half to the day right off the bat. Partly cloudy day in the 50's and 60's, perfect weather for hiking. Easy gradual climb for the first 5 miles or so, then we started to climb more, introducing a very wet, muddy trail. Water dripping from the trees which were frozen the night before, pockets of snow-covered forest before the day got too warm. A wrong turn down the Shorey "Shortcut" added another mile and 1,000 ft of elevation to our day before getting to Little Haystack and eventually Mount Haystack. After a brief stop at the 360-view, open rock summit, and lunch at the crossroads, we descended and ascended to Basin. Wind gusts were a little worse at Basin, which brought down the temperature, so that summit was a quick stop. The descent from Basin wasn't easy, many slick ledges and slides. Then we got to the Cliffs before Saddleback, which were scary, technical bouldering scrambles, but all in all pretty fun. Great views down the range from SB. Trip back to Garden wasn't awful but felt like it took ..." — gregoryskiba • Sep 29, 2022
"From the Garden/JBL trail *only*, up and back the Ore Bed route.
Trail in good shape and still fairly dry from summer. Cold early this year. I could see my breath starting around the junction w the Range Trail in the Col btw Gothics/Saddleback.
8 hours round trip, including a full hour on the sunny, yet brisk, summit." — ndru-virus • Sep 16, 2022
"With friends and future 46ers, we went the same route I had gone 2 years earlier and up and over HaBaSa. Great weather the entire day. Met up with some Allen red slime on the Ore Bed slide." — JMindlin12463 • Jul 1, 2022
"Parked at the Garden well before sunrise; got some great views of the stars before starting. Trail to Big Slide was straightforward, many outcroppings along the way. Descended to Johns Brook Lodge, then up Phelps Trail to Haystack. Grueling part of the trail, over Little Haystack and up the summit! Slowly over Basin, up Saddleback (cliffs right before sunset!) before descending Orebed Brook and out to the Garden. Muscle cramping = biggest issue, and hiking in the dark: 2.5hr. All in all, a very long but fulfilling day!" — hunterjfrost • Nov 6, 2021
"Haystack Basin Saddleback:
I have been anticipating this hike for a long time with a lot of excitement about the challenge of the much talked about Saddleback Cliffs, and some dread about what a long and tough hike it would be. I knew we wanted a dry day for climbing the cliffs and ideally a beautiful day to enjoy the views. I planned to go a few times this summer and plans changed because of the weather or other factors. So when it looked like this would be the weekend I could get it done, I was nervously checking the weather forecast which changed from sunny to rainy to back to sunny to cloudy over the course of the week. I had gambled and booked a room and the forecast was back to looking ok so we decided it was a go. I drove up Friday and got there early evening to the little inn I found (private room but shared bathroom, which worked out fine and was very cute and inexpensive), which thankfully also had a great restaurant so I could eat, get packed up for the hike, and go to bed early for our 5 am start time.
I met Courtney at the Roostercomb trailhead parking lot so we could take one car to the Garden trailhead lot, which notoriously fills up and then you are pretty screwed..." — kvander • Aug 28, 2021
"Kathryn and her dog Rex arrived at the B&B last night. She joined Tom and I for a trio of Haystack, Basin and Saddleback today. Nice sunny weather with some strong winds on the summits particularly Haystack. Got Tom up to #43 and Kathryn up to #25 for their 46r quest." — Nimblefoot • Sep 5, 2020
"Began at Rooster Comb parking area for Great Range Traverse. Humid day with some sun, horrible black flies. We added in Pyramid and ran out of time and energy for Haystack. 7 peaks" — bbergman • Jul 3, 2020
"Epic day on HaBaSa with my friend and fellow ADK46er. Went up via Slant Rock. Very windy on Haystack. Trip down to Basin and ascent wasn't too bad, but was muddy in areas. Descent off Basin is one of the most difficult, if not THE most difficult in the ADK. Was frightened looking at the cliffs on Saddleback as we were descending. All the hype of the cliffs was worse than the climb actually. Got up the cliffs in about 10 minutes. Toughest part was the very beginning and the Spiderman walk up the crack in the rock. Beautiful views on Saddleback. Went down the Ore Bed slide and the Stairway to Heaven on the descent towards the junction with the cable route up Gothics and back to JBL" — JMindlin12463 • Jun 12, 2020
"Tom, Black and I left the Garden lot at 6:10 am with temps in the 20s. We took 1 of 3 spots left in the Garden parking lot. Trail in great shape all the way to the summit which we attained at 11am. Blue skies and less wind than predicted. View was great! Micros to the junction and snowshoes to the summit. Had lunch just off the summit out of the wind in the warm sun then out. Had bad leg cramps on the way out...snowshoes I think. Halfway out at lower elevation the snow got sticky clogging our Micros. Came out bare booted. Spring conditions down low and 6-8' on the summit. Returned to car at 3:10." — garyogden • Mar 8, 2020