Zachary Sparrow, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral scientist looking for data-driven insight into chemical physics.

The Adirondack mountains (a.k.a. the ‘Dacks) in upstate New York are some of the most remote peaks in the Northeast United States. The High Peaks region, sporting ~46 peaks with an elevation over 4,000 feet, has become a popular hiking destination for people all around the world. Some of the East coast’s best hikes are in the ADK region (looking at you, Great Range traverse). Hiking all 46 of the ADK high peaks is recognized as one of the greatest hiking challenges in the region. On 07/09/2023, my partner and I started our quest to become ADK 46ers before leaving Ithaca (likely 2028). Track our progress here!

Planned hikes

  • Cascade and Porter
  • Big Slide
  • Street and Nye
  • Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge
  • Esther and Whiteface
  • Algonquin, Iroquois, and Wright
  • Sawteeth
  • Santanoni Range
  • Dix Range
  • Colvin, Blake, Nippletop, and Dial
  • Marcy, Tabletop, and Phelps
  • Allen
  • Cliff, Redfield, and Marshall
  • Skylight, Grey, and Colden
  • Seward Range
  • The Great Range Traverse

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Trail Journal

Cascade and Porter (2/46)

07/09/2023, Cascade Mountain Trail

  • Very muddy, eroded trail on a cloudy day. Most difficult part was the terrain. Brought Jessie—we’ve never seen her jump so high! She loves wading through the mud.

Marcy, Tabletop, and Phelps (5/46)

08/27/2023, Van Hoevenberg Trail

  • Started out with just Tabletop and Phelps on the agenda, which we realized we would finish quickly. I had summitted Marcy before and knew we had the time, resources, and energy to tackle that peak, too, so we extended our day quite a bit! Ultimately hit Tabletop, Marcy, then Phelps. The day started out cloudy, but cleared up by the time we hit Phelps on the way back.

Mount Allen (6/46)

09/16/23, East River Trail

  • Why not knock out one of the hardest and most notorious peaks early? We had a lot of fun with this one. The approach was long and easy, with very muddy sections. The slide was quite slippery and difficult to navigate at times, and we ended up bushwacking to the right of the trail behind two other guys before spotting a trail runner and traversing back to the herd path. Ended up finding great views past the summit a bit! Great, beautiful day!

Street and Nye (8/46)

03/02/2024, Indian Pass

  • Our first winter hike in the ‘Dacks. The original idea was to get some conditioning in before my trip to Rainier in the summer, so we went with my friend Jack with 35 lbs of deadweight in my pack. There was very little snow and ice when we started, but a decent amount closer to the summits. We had decent weather, but it was a little windy on the summits.

Esther and Whiteface (10/46)

05/15/2024, Atmospheric Science Research Center

  • Beautiful day! Cool and sunny at first, but started to heat up as we descended. Saw a beautiful sunrise on the top of Marble Mountain on the way up before hitting Esther, then Whiteface. The top of Whiteface was fairly empty when we got there (we were the first hikers and the visitor center had just opened up), but started filling up fast. We saw some red breasted nuthatches on the way down—it sounded like they were laughing at us!

Dix Range (15/46)

08/31/2024, Hunter’s Pass Trail

  • The Dix Range is some of people’s favorites, but wasn’t ours. The day was wet, wet, wet, and our motto ended up being “I think that was the worst of it (it wasn’t).” Summits were quite winder (30 mph or so). Going up Macoumb slide in the early morning fog was quite eerie, but very cool. Despite the weather, we had some solid type 2 fun and knocked out 5 peaks!

Skylight, Gray, and Colden (18/46)

07/04/2025, Van Hoevenberg, Lake Arnold, Mount Marcy Trails

  • Another beautiful day! Classic ADK approach until the swamp with the “floating” bridges, which ended up being mostly washed away. Still, we were able to cross the swamp via downed trees and bridge remains. The ascent up Gray with fairly steep, with some technical scrambly sections. Skylight was amazing, but very windy! We were feeling good so we decided to hit out stretch goal (Colden) on the way back, and were almost fooled by the false summit.

Big Slide (19/46)

07/05/2025, The Brothers and Phelps Trails

  • After the big hike yesterday, the approach up to the first brother felt relentlessly steep. After getting to the first lookout over the Great Range we started to enjoy ourselves more, though. Seeing the Great Range was also really cool, and was great motivation for our planned traverse, which we hope to attempt later this year! Going down the Phelps trail was a lot of fun—there are some beautiful spots along the creek as you’re descending.

Sawteeth (20/46)

07/06/2025, Scenic and Weld Trails

  • We decided to trail run this one because we were due for a long run according to our marathon training plan and the long flat approach made this a good contender. This ended up being our favorite hike so far. The scenic trail is steep, technical, and really interesting (with some great views), and the Weld trail was an easy run down. We decided to visit Indian Head for the most famous ADK views over Lake Colden. Tired by the end, but we made some great time!

Santanoni Range (23/46)

07/26/2025, Santanoni Road, Bradley Pond Trail, and various herd paths

  • With this, we’re officially halfway done with the high peaks! The Santas have a reputation for being quite muddy, and we were not disappointed on that front. Knowing to expect quite a lot of mud (even for ADK standards) definitely made the day more pleasant – we figured wet feet were unavoidable and didn’t waste much energy trying to balance on logs and hop across rocks to avoid the inevitable. The herd paths were quite narrow, with quite a few branches poking out waiting to stick unexpecting hikers. As a result, Sydney and I both wear quite a few scrapes and scratches on our arms and legs. As foretold, the best views of the range are certainly from Panther, but we got some nice shots of the more northeast high peaks on the way to Santanoni with some beautiful fog/haze to accentuate the peaks.

Cliff, Redfield, and Marshall (26/46)

08/23/25, Upper Works

  • Our goal was to hit 26 peaks for Sydney’s 26th birthday, so we decided to add on Marshall to the already long Cliff and Redfield hike (which by itself is already about 20 miles long). On the plus side, the trail was quite dry. Still, we ended up clocking about 25.5 miles, making for a VERY long day. On top of that, neither Cliff, Redfield, nor Marshall really had any views… This hike felt more like work than any other we’ve done so far. We had some fun though, particularly with the suspension bridge and the Cliff cliffs at the beginning of the day. The worst part was definitely the long march out (5 miles) after tagging Marshall. Glad to have this one done!

Seward Range (30/46)

08/31/25, Blueberry and Calkins Brook Trails

  • For Labor day we chose one of the more remote ranges in the high peaks in hopes of avoiding some of the crowds the more popular parts of the backcountry sees on these early fall long weekends. I’m glad we did – even though the Seward trailhead is one of the most remote in the high peaks, we still ran into quite a few parties throughout the day. Our plan was to tag Seymour first, followed by Seward, Donaldson, and Emmons before descending via the Calkins Brook trail. We started early and heard the company of a couple of owls before sunrise. Ultimately, we made pretty good time, covering about 22-23 miles in 12 hours. There were some great views throughout the hike, but much of the path was wet and slipppery, resulting in a few minor tumbles. The path up Seward from the Blueberry trail is one of the ADK’s steepest, and it certainly felt like it!

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