"Morale was the lowest once we finished the steeper side of the front side coming down Colden. We hit the pretty much flat portion and had five miles left at that trail junction. I sat down for a second and I got rid of one of my layers and Ryan's like 'we should probably take our headlamps out now'. We were looking at five or six miles in the dark. Oh boy." - Roger Laistner "I was definitely thinking about daylight waning away and it was definitely in my mind in terms of setting the pace that I was going at. I really wanted to see how far I could get. I got going real fast on the rocks and at that point it was just like sort of a process of just skipping from rock to rock and keeping momentum forward and letting the trail just guide me wherever it wanted me to go." - Wil Nagengast In this episode, I have a great conversation about the Adirondack High Peaks and our most recent adventure with friends and adventurers Roger Laistner and Wil Nagengast. I met Roger and Wil in college and we began going on Adirondack adventures shortly thereafter. The weekend of Saturday, October 13th, 2018 was another Adirondack weekend where we were planning to hike Mount Colden via Avalanche Lake. We had a large group of 9 hikers and the three of us split off to try and do Mount Marshall in addition to Colden. We were unsuccessful. This is the story of a hike that could have ended a lot worse than it actually did. We talk about: 1. Our late 10AM start on an October weekend and how that affected our hike of Mount Colden. 2. The challenges and upside of hiking with a large group. 3. The importance of doing research prior to a hike and communicating a clear and logical plan. 4. The issue of overpopulation in the Adirondacks and what we experienced on peak foliage weekend in the High Peaks Region. If you found value in this episode, please subscribe on whatever platform you are listening on and bring over at least one friend to the podcast. I would appreciate it if you could like, comment, and share this episode on social media. This podcast grows with the help of YOU! I appreciate your feedback and reviews give you the chance to be the fan of the week in future episodes! Stay curious and stay adventurous. This podcast episode’s affiliate partner is the ninth project company. If you love activewear that performs well, looks awesome, and inspires us to get out and explore, then the ninth project company is for you. I have been wearing my long sleeve escape often shirt on many of my recent adventures and fully back this company as an awesome activewear company. Guys, they are totally worth the check out. For being a to summit up podcast listener, you get 15 percent off of your order by using code TOSUMMITUPBLOG at check out. Head to ninthproject.com to get your awesome activewear. Music today was courtesy of free music archive by Scott Holmes (Driven to Success). You can find more of his music at freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/. The To Summit Up theme song was produced by friend Jordan Wolf.