Each winter, my buddy TBPDPTI and I take a break from our usual hot pursuit of obscure, trail-less 3K peaks in the park and go do a good old fashioned winter high peaks hike. We were initially thinking of Saddleback & Gothics via JBL but were unsure of water crossings that far in. At the last minute, we instead decided on Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge since it was a straightforward hike nearby with no major water crossings.
We signed in around 7:45am wearing microspikes, which we’d leave on for much of the day. We both carried snowshoes but never saw a good opportunity to use them. Kind of crazy that you’re able to ‘spike it up a high peak in March this year. There was definitely less snow than I was expecting - even a few bare patches here and there. Pretty straightforward ascent. The viewpoints on the ridge were still in the clouds, as was the summit. Took us about 2h30m to get up.
Next we plunged down the trail over to RPR following the prints of two hikers who were just a short ways ahead of us. Nothing too difficult - some good opportunities for butt sliding. The “problem ledge” was navigable in microspikes at least on the way down. Before we knew it we were in the col and a short time later we emerged on the bare summit of RPR. Still no views, but it was actually pretty pleasant up there with warming temperatures and no wind.
At the Giant/RPR col we both donned crampons and these helped immensely with the ascent back up Giant. In my opinion, they were mandatory to re-climb the “problem ledge” although others had managed it in microspikes. I’d love to see a small ladder put in here by the DEC at some point. The last few pushes up to the Giant intersection were tough - guess it’s been a while since I did 4k+ climbing day.
We kept the crampons on for just about the entire descent of Giant as they just made life easier. By the time we reached the various ledges on the ridge, the cloud line had risen enough to give us some very dramatic views of the Dix Range, Round & Noonmark, and some of the Great Range peaks. The bottom 0.25-0.5 miles of trail was getting messy in the afternoon since the sun was out, snow was melting and the streams were overflowing. Of course these conditions will slowly make their way higher up the mountain in the coming weeks.