Nippletop via Elk Pass

I know that the usual hike is to do Dial and Nippletop together, but I'm recovering from some back problems and don't dare hike that far yet. How is the trail to Nippletop from Elk Pass? If we only want to do Nippletop is that the way to go? I did Big Slide via the Brothers and returned by JBL last week. Now I want to move up to around a 12 mile hike. Any advice would really be appreciated.

Thanks, sounds good. Oh, one more question. Because we aren't going to do Dial, will we need to return on the same trail, or is there another way down?

Here's a new question. What is the distance? According to the ADK trail guide it's about 12 miles. Looking at Barbara McMartin's guide, she says it's 14 miles. She says it's only .5 miles farther to do the loop over Dial. By the ADK guide it's around 2 miles farther to do the loop. My reason for doing the Elk Pass route is to save a couple of miles. I would hate to find out I'm not. Am I reading something wrong? Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm really pushing it to even do 12 with my disk problems. Is this question clear at all? I guess the only question is how far from the parking area is Nip by the Elk Pass route?

Thanks for the info. I'll still do Nippletop by Elk pass. I've reached the point in my hiking that all of the mountains left, over 4,000 ft. are over 12 miles, so I don't have many to choose from. I've actually done a few over, such as the ones I did in the fog. Or maybe hike by a different route. I agree on the terraine vs miles. I found Mount Marcy to be one of the easiest hikes, even though longer than many. And I found Giant and Rocky Ridge to be one of the most difficult for me. (Bad knees too).

if you can do Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge with bad knees and a bad back, I wouldn't be afraid to tackle Dial as a descent route. It is a long hike over Bears Den from Dial, but it's much better as a descent route; than to climb Dial from that direction.

As Bruce mentioned, I climb the two doing Nippletop first.

Have a great hike, nippletop is pretty amzing.

If you're comfortable with map and compass, go over Dial and continue north to the Bear Den - Dial Col.

A NNE compass bearing from the trail will take you back to the Gill Brook trail. In the winter, or when the leaves are off the trees, you just keep WolfJaws notch right in front of you and you don't even need to have your compass out.