A review of “The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Complete Guide to Hiking the High Peaks” by James Appleton. North Country Books. 2025. https://www.globepequot.com/9781493086061/the-adirondack-46-in-18-hikes/
Overview
This book contains descriptions of 18 hiking trips that will lead the hiker to summit all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks. For each trip the book provides an overview, basic map, and the author’s personal journal entry from when he completed the hike during the summer of 2018. The book also has background information about the Adirondack High Peaks and preparing for hiking. The author is a licensed guide who has hiked these mountains multiple times. He also hosts an Adirondack hiking podcast that I have regularly listened to for a few years.
Three compliments
One:
The book answers common questions aspiring 46ers have about what trail to take and what mountains to group together into a single hiking trip.
Two:
The first six hikes are great for learning about hiking in the high peaks and your hiking style. This book provides an excellent guide for starting your 46er journey.
Three:
The author acknowledges the risks involved in hiking the Adirondack High Peaks. He specifically urges hikers to be cautious in the Santanoni and Dix ranges due to their remoteness and length of hike. He also does a good job of discussing his questionable decision to add Cliff and Redfield to his hike of Gray, Skylight, and Marcy.
Three Critiques
One:
The subtitle “Complete Guide to Hiking the High Peaks” is not accurate. The author quickly points this out in the “About This Book” sub-section called “What This Book Is Not” where he recommends using multiple sources when researching your hikes. The maps provided in this book give an overview of the recommended route, but are not adequate for hiking the more complex or challenging high peaks.
Two:
There are no clear alternatives to the 18 hikes as they are presented in this book. Factors such as weather, fatigue, and your personal hiking pace may cause you to not get to all of the peaks that are grouped together into a hike. Other sources of information will help you decide how to reorder or reconfigure some of the hikes and provide ideas for alternate trails.
Three:
I was slightly confused by how the guide portion of this book is the author’s recommendation for how to group and order the hikes, while the journal entries reflect how he actually completed the hike. These differences are not explicitly addressed. For some of the hikes, a close reading of this book along with consulting a good map will help clarify the recommended route.
Summary
I recommend this book for aspiring 46ers who are looking for information about how to tackle this challenge. This book will be most useful to people who are starting their 46er journey and are not familiar with hiking in the Adirondack High Peaks region. In addition to this book, I recommend the traditional guide book “High Peaks Trails” and the High Peaks Adirondack Trail Map; both published by the Adirondack Mountain Club. There are also social media and other internet groups where people post current information about trail conditions and discuss hiking the high peaks. Reading multiple memoir-style books, consulting the High Peaks Trails guide, and participating in the social media groups will help you create your own path towards becoming an Adirondack 46er.