I did both sides of Sugarloaf. Can't say that there was that much of a difference, if you have to get back to your car. Obviously, if you are completing a loop, the elevation gain and loss have to match.
Anyway, scrambling down takes just as much out of me as scrambling up. Both knees and nerves start to complain. In fact, I think I made the right decision when I did a loop of the Burroughs Range: I did it clockwise, doing Giant Ledge and the stairs on the first day, camped off in the woods somewhere on the trail to Terrace Mountain, and did Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide from halfway up Wittenberg. That way I was taking the steep stuff on Wittenberg, the Cornell Crack, and the cliff below the ladders on Slide upward, and being kind to the knees.
For my money, Twin was harder than Indian Head, Sugarloaf or Plateau. There is one slab on the west side that really spooked me. It seemed as if there was nothing to hold onto at all, and the rock was slick with algae. I was wearing regular trail runners, not approach shoes, and I'm not great at slab climbing in the first place.
With respect to the long climb up to Balsam Cap and Friday: I'm thinking that I might tackle the four bushwhack peaks an unusual way once the nettles die back again. (It's getting late for doing them now!) One of my partners suggests hiking in from Denning, making a base camp near the East Branch headwall, and climbing those peaks from there. It's a lot less elevation gain than coming up from Moon Haw Road, and with proper planning the actual climbs could be done with light daypacks, with all the heavy stuff left in camp. It would also be an area of the Catskills that few ever get to see. I don't think very many hikers get past the end of the Fishermen's Path.
Of course, the spruce might completely block the way. But I understand that the unlucky have that happen when they come up from the east as well!
I'm not lost. I know exactly where I am. I'm right here.