Giant Mountain is the twelfth highest peak in New York State at 4627 feet. The peak is also known as "Giant of the Valley," due to its stature looking over Keene Valley and St. Huberts to the west. The prominent rock slides on the mountain's steep western face and its location away from most other large peaks make it quite an imposing figure, leading to its name.

There are three main routes to Giant Mountain, one from the east, and two from the west. The two most popular routes begin on trailheads along NY 73, one near St. Huberts and the other near Chapel Pond. The two trails climb the southern ridge of the mountain, meeting up about a mile south of the summit.

The third ascent begins from the east, near the town of New Russia on US 9, and is not as commonly climbed due to the longer hike. The route climbs Bald Peak, a smaller mountain, then begins the ascent of Rocky Peak Ridge. After reaching Rocky Peak Ridge, hikers decent a small col before ascending to Giant Mountain. This route is more commonly used by those attempting to become Adirondack Forty-Sixers, since Rocky Peak (4420 feet) is a required peak.

The map below shows the 2.7 mile one way hike from the trailhead on NY 73 near Chapel Pond.  This route does have an elevation gain of over 3000 feet.  Even though it looks to be quite a hard peak to get up it is actually one of the more pleasant mountains to climb in the area. 

The normal route up the Ridge Trail is long but not overly steep, it has great sections of exposed rock with some minor scrambling, there are a number of good lookouts along the trail and the summit is mostly bald and offers the best view of the entire great range as well as Whiteface, Easter and the Dix range.

The normal route is up the Ridge Trail is an ideal day route for young kids they love the scrambling and open sections but beware of the look out over the washbowl as it is a sheer 300 foot drop that can be hard to see at night or in bad weather.

contact CNY HIKING by email at contact@cnyhiking.com

(c) 2006-today CNY Hiking - All rights reserved.  Any use of information from this site without permission is strictly forbidden.