Easiest/Hardest 4000 Footer?

Ok there are rules for this thread! If you want to post your hardest 4000 footer you MUST also post your easiest 4000 footer (and visvs).

I have only completed 12 so far so I am no expert by any means.

My easiest was Mt. Hale. It was also my first. I stayed at Zeland Hut and the caretaker who I was friends with said "hey wanna bag a peak"? I had no ideas what he ment, but I was up for it. We climbed to it's wooded peak and he said "write this down, you only have 47 more to go". Now I've hiked several of the 12 that I've already done many times. So I will also start another thread titled "Best Winter 4000 and Best Summer 4000"

My hardest had to have been Adams/Madison in winter. It was a total white out. After getting a little lost after Adams 4 I found Mt. Adams and continued on to Madison. I was at the base of Madison and I could even see the rock I was trying to step on that was snow covered white with white snow blowing in my face at 70mph. I hoped to follow my foot prints back, but they had all vanished from the wind. All I had was a compass bearing and hope that I took it correctly! I'm sure it's a hard hike anyway, but all that made it a little bit more difficult.


I HAD TO EDIT THIS EMAIL BECAUSE I ACCIDENTLY WROTE IN JEFFERSON WHEN I MENT MADISON...

Hardest, because it took me three tries to reach the top: Katahdin

Easiest, because it was the quickest to the summit, timewise: Slide

I have yet to hit all the 4k's, but from those I have done:

Hardest: South Carter
The many rough ups and downs between Middle Carter and South Carter really irritated an already tender knee. A lot of pain coming off the summit. I also couldn't find my second wind that day.

Easiest: First time doing Jefferson via Caps Ridge.
I had a ton of energy on this hike. The short distance from trailhead to summit also made this easier.

@Raymond: nice avatar. I love that show.
^MtnMike^

For me, personally, what is easy on one day might be hard on the next and all of that depends on my mental and emotional state just as much as my physical state. So, when something is particularly trying for me, I just go back and do it on a different day . . . but if I had to pick . . .

Hardest - Cabot in NH and Marcy in NY (obviously not on the same day )

Easiest - Pierce

sli74

hmmmmmm

Hardest = Hale, up lend a hand. Hard because we left from Guyot that morning and did not eat enough and we weren't planning on bagging it that day. Also left my big toe nail on the cairn!

Easiest = The Kinsmans, I was od'ing on endorpines that day!

easiest-Cascade and Porter
Hardest-MacIntyre Range traverse

Easy/Hard

Easy

From the Base - Hunter
From another Mountain - Emmons from Donaldson or vice versa

Hard

Allen - 18-20 mile death march on a 95 degree summer day, with every conceivable insect plaguing us at various points along the way.

Hardest was Mt Willey from Kedron Falls trail with a nine year old. It was his first Mountain.

Easiest....Pierce...no Zealand...no wait it was N Hancock. Damn I don't know. Am I disqualified?

EASIEST:
Jackson on Webster-Jackson trail. This might be the easiest 4K in the Northeast. Sugarloaf was also very easy.

HARDEST:
Lafayette in winter...weather, illness, fear. 3 times now Washington in winter also.

Easiest... Jackson.. or Tecumseh..or Zealand... One of those.. its hard to pick one. Jackson was so daned short to get to, zealands a walk in the park and Tecumseh was borish.

Hardest... Willey range in 100 Degree Heat. The entire wildcat ridge in the rain from Glen Ellis. Those might top em.

Easiest for me in NH: either Hale or Osceola
Hardest: Owl's Head in humidity & bugseason or Adams on a warm early may day via Airline when trying to keep up with three fast hikers, I was the only one caring the just in case gear we did not need too.

VT: Easy Abraham
Hard Killington in summer heat

ME: North Crocker from the North
Hard Sugarloaf via ski trails when CVR is impassable

NY (21 or 22 so far)
Easy - Cascade
Hard: Haystack after Basin & Saddleback or Iroquois after Wrights & Algonquin, getting there not hard, tired on way down which is mandatory too. (I've only done Macomb, Iroquois & Table Top of the "trail-less' peaks so far so hardest is likely to change

Easiest: Hale
Hardest: Washington

this is a tough question. It depends on the weather, who is with you, and what condition the trail is in. Also as I'm lighter and in better shape than in the past, some I thought were hard were probably actually not too bad, while some I think are easy now would have been killers then.

Hardest was probably Madison, but only because I did Jefferson and Adams first that day. Other than that Wildcat from Glen Ellis was tough because of the lack of warmup. And I picked a really soggy day to visit Isolation -- Rich: " is this the trail or are we in the brook?" Me: "both".

Easiest I would say is Pierce. But Zealand, Waumbek, Passaconaway from Dicey's Mill, Tom & Field, Galehead, Cabot from Millbrook, and all but the last bit of Garfield are pretty easy too.

Just to add, I haven't done many of the hundred highest, but Stratton in southern Vermont must be the easiest of those.

Easiest - Redington (Nothing else even comes close).

Hardest physically and emotionally - Donaldson via Seward in July on a warm & humid day totally drained me.

Hardest to reach summit - Katahdin, both Baxter and Hamlin. I've only Baxter Peak on three of six attempts and Hamlin one out of two, all during the Summer. In all unsuccessful cases I was blown off the severe weather where proceeding was not an option. (I can only imagine what Katahdin is like in Winter!) By contrast, I'm four for four on Washington.

Hardest psychologically - Allen. I heard and read so many stories about people being unsuccessful in their summit attempts, principally by getting lost in the blowdown and herd path to Allen Brook that I psyched myself out, missed an obvious turn and ended up wasting about two hours trying to get back on track. Had I remained calm and made the turn, the trip would have been among my longest, but not particularly hard.

of the 48

I've climed exactly 24.

Easiest was Zealand. One, I didnt even know that we were on a peak and it was about half way through a hike. I remember walking back to the trail and thinking that it shouldnt even be on the list as it has no view, I'm glad it was in conjunction with bagging all the Bonds as well. I did add a rock to the pile.

Hardest. Adams, winter. Poured in torrents on the way up. The trail resembled a water fall. Really it was amazing I dont think Ive seen rain drops that big for that long. Then, temps dropped to about 20F and it began to snow all night into the next day...hiking out from Crag was hard but memorable

Hardest physically; Adams. 60-80mph winds and icy , IN AUGUST.
Hardest mentally; Cabot after a long weekend of camping (boozing) I shoulda been in bed certainly not climbing anything.
Easiest was Hale with my son(5 at the time) his first 4k on a dry windless summer day.

like many posters before me, it all depends on context...

in my case:

easiest: either hale or tecumseh

hardest: cannon. this is because it was done on little sleep, after bagging both north & south kinsman beforehand. i ran out of food and water, and it was raining buckets in 40 degree temps.

Dang, this is a tough question!

I guess the hardest would be Madison. It was my second 4K, and it was difficult because I thought it would be so easy. But there are a few others that could qualify, and some are surprising:

_ Tom (it took me 4 attempts I think to get this one. One time, I wanted to back it along with Willey and Field on the same trip, but we had to abort the trip when it started raining in 40 degrees in August and my hiking partner hadn't brought any gear to stay warm; another time, it was winter, and tracks were going every which way but on the trail, and there was too much snow to see the blazes)
_ Jackson. This was the very first time I ever went hiking in the Whites, and I carried WAY too much gear -- I think about 50 lbs worth. I hiked for 6 hours, believe it or not, and didn't get anywhere near the summit! Yikes!

Easiest:
_ Hale. I did this one in autumn, when my hiking legs were in prime shape, and absolutely breezed up and down.
_ Tom (eventually! )
_ Ike.

Haven't completed the list for summer or winter yet but have a good start on both...

Easiest: Jackson and/or Hale. Both about the same.

Hardest: Washington. My first and it took me 3 tries before the weather gods allowed me to summit.

For winter
Easiest: Hale
Hardest: Adams, still haven't made it.
-vegematic

Easiest for me was Redington in Maine.

Hardest was Hale in New Hampshire. As this was the first time I carried a heavy backpack, which also had way too much camping gear in it.