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31 climbs • 10.0 mi • 2,010 ft gain • 4 hr 5 min
2 climbs • 5.2 mi • 1,519 ft gain • 3 hr 8 min
Latest climbs
"Second hike of the day. An annoying road walk with bugs to keep me company. The trail started off mellow and got steeper past the cabin. Some great directional views from the tower looking towards the High Peaks. On the way back, during the road walk, a car drove past me, despite the DEC claims that the road is closed due to a washed out bridge and having the gate locked..." — newenglandwarrior • Jun 13, 2024

"-5c morning hike, weather was perfect on this 11.4mile hike/climb from the road because of gated entrance to celebrate Lisa's finish of the 29er challenge and her 56th birthday, Trails where snow covered with quite a bit of portholes and a bit of route finding from breaking new 3inch of new snow" — ramjet1963 • Mar 21, 2024

"Beauty day in the Adirondacks climbing. Mt. Vanderwhacker 3386ft, number 28/32 on my quest to climb all the fire towers in the Adirondack park, Today also marked another milestone as being my 200th summit climbed in four years of loving this amazing pastime. Todays hike was a 10miler and only cause the gate was locked at the highway and added an additional 5 miles to the hike , kinda felt like I was back on the AMR lake road lol Trail was rugged, wet and slippery and in need of some much needed love but the tower was looking good and offered some amazing views of the western high peaks, weather was cloudy, slight drizzle to granular snow at one point but didn't last long. What an awesome way to end a hectic week at work, Enjoy my friends" — ramjet1963 • Sep 23, 2022

"Kelly and I departed the car at 9:46 am under partly cloudy skies @ 68 degrees. The state deemed the bridge on the 2.5 mile long Moose Pond Road unsafe and locked the entry gate. So either mtn. bike the road to the trailhead like we did or plan on adding 5 miles on foot to your day. The trail up was well marked with some mud and blow down which were easily skirted. Summited at 11:49. Views from the open tower cabin were 360 degrees and beautiful despite some haze from the humidity. On the way down we shared the trail face to face with a boar black bear at 20 yards. Pics and videos were taken. Mtn biked the remaining 2.5 miles back to the car arriving at 2:45. Nice bike and hike day!" — garyogden • Jun 15, 2022

"Drove all the way to the trailhead! Even went across the bridge with the "bridge out" sign! It's in great shape and others had crossed it many times! Nice easy warm up on the trail then up, up, up in the last mile or so. Trailhead sign said 2M to the tower! BS, it was 3! In the clouds with no view today:-(" — Retiredtop2004 • May 23, 2021

"Left the sun at home for Rain most of the day 😜 a small break at the peak but No view. Bugs were at bay most of the time . Not too bad despite the muddy conditions . We enjoyed the hike!" — andrewbearjustin • Jun 16, 2019

"5 happy hikers and 5 pups enjoyed a quick hike up Vanderwhacker - a nice easy hike of ~ 6 miles RT with a gain of ~1700 - most of which is during the last 1.2 miles. The fire tower offers a commanding view of the High Peaks." — deb-and-rob • Dec 2, 2017

"Beautiful Day - probably the nicest hiking day I've had all year. About 34 degrees at the 8:30 am start, brilliant sunshine for the entire hike. Nice trail. Excellent views of the High Peaks. My 18th Adirondack Fire Tower. Enjoyed some quiet time at the summit, lots of people heading up as we were heading down. AWD/4 wheel drive with high clearance recommended for the drive in from 28N." — PJSelmer • Sep 2, 2017

"This was a very long hike and I struggled on it.. taking a good 20-30 minutes longer than I would have expected. The views are enjoyable, but there is a huge effort required to get to them - except for those with a truck that can drive along Moose Pond Club road to the trailhead. For those that don't have a high-clearance vehicle, there are other mountains with shorter hikes that have better views than Vanderwhacker." — RangersApprentice • Jun 25, 2016

"We parked just off the 28N, So we did the whole 11 Miles. That road is loooooooooooong on the way back, I'm sure someone stretched it why we were at the summit. All in all a great, not too difficult hike, but a very long one. My car is low clearance so didn't want to risk driving up Moose Pond club road. I still can't believe that's an actual "road". But, job done......Fire Tower #13 bagged." — HikingViking • Jun 25, 2016