HPWA — 267.9 miles — 75,000 vertical— wilderness wonder

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Challenge: High Peaks Wilderness Area Trail System

Location: Adirondack Park of New York

Created: 2016

Completers: 17

Difficulty: 5/5

What it is

The 267.9-mile High Peaks Wilderness Area Trail System hiking challenge demands hikers cover all 79 trails within this 192,000-acre region. Completers cover about 450 miles and climb about 100,000 vertical feet. It is a literal, not figurative, walk in the park. Hikers also top more than a dozen 4,000-foot peaks and visit remote destinations they've probably never heard of. 

How to do it

Purchase Among the Cloud Splitters, that contains the list of trails, on the Merch page and hike it. 

Recognition

An official completer certificate and patch are available to completers for $20. Fill out the High Peaks Wilderness Area Hiker Application here and then reach out to me via the Contact page.

Completers

2016: Erik Schlimmer (1)

2017: no completers

2018: Jared Whalen (2)

2019: no completers

2020: Colleen Porter (3), Loring Porter (4), Kyle Edele (5), Amanda Riggs (6), Nancy LaBaff (7)

2021: Lois Swears (8), Charles Langlois (9), Jonathan Zaharek (10), Andrew Puckey (11)

2022: Thomas Penders (12), Duane Martin (13)

2023: Chad Wilkes (14), Troy Tetreault (15)

2024: Phil Arnold (16)

2025: John Ehntholt (17)

** In 2018, 192,000-acre High Peaks Wilderness Area was expanded to 275,000 acres and dubbed High Peaks Wilderness Complex. Anyone who started this challenge in 2018 or earlier will be grandfathered in to the old guard list of completers.

** Anyone who started this challenge in 2019 or later may hike the seventeen trails in former Dix Mountain Wilderness Area that was combined with High Peaks Wilderness Area to form High Peaks Wilderness Complex. Only the segments that traverse state land must be hiked.

Colvin Trail (1.3 miles on state land), Dix Mountain Via Hunters Pass Trail (2.1), Dix Trail (4.0), Elk Lake to Dix Mountain Trail (4.7), Elk Lake to Marcy Trail (1.8), Elk Pass Trail (1.2), Fish Hawk Cliffs Trail (0.4), Gill Brook Trail (1.1), Leach Trail (4.3), Lower Ausable Lake Trail (0.6), Nipple Top Trail (0.2), Old Dix Trail (1.5), Pinnacle Trail (4.1), Round Pond Trail (2.1), Spur to Round Mountain Trail (0.1), Stimson Trail (2.2), Weston Trail (2.4). Additional mileage: 34.1 Total challenge mileage: 302.0