The Green Guide to Low-Impact Hiking and Camping by Guy Waterman

Author:Guy Waterman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Countryman Press
Published: 2016-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

. . . And Still Counting

Not that the 46ers have lost their original love of climbing mountains. Far from it! They still bag peaks with the best of them and aren’t a bit ashamed of it. As of 2013, 623 have done them all in winter. A number have climbed them all a dozen or more times. Some have done them all via bushwhack routes or by moonlight. Some self-righteous souls swear at this sort of thing as insufficiently sensitive to the mountain environment. We say, let each enjoy the mountains in his or her own way, so long as they are damaging neither the mountains nor the experience of others. As for the 46ers, are any of their critics doing as much for the benefit of the mountains? We love ’em all.

We especially loved the two old-timers who did so much to keep this organization rolling. Grace Hudowalski, first 46er president in 1948, nearly up to her death in 2004, answered all the mail, more than 1,000 letters per year, and sent out the patches, with encouraging notes and responses to a variety of questions. Elder statesman A. G. Dittmar served as executive secretary/treasurer of the group, keeping tabs on the finances. Ditt’s annual dues reminder always took the form of some outrageously funny piece that he’d composed or unearthed somewhere during the past year—followed by his hitting us up for this year’s dues.

And do you know what the dues are? Here is a group that does effective trail work, works on summit restoration, holds workshops and other activities to educate others, and puts out a truly outstanding quarterly publication—and do you want to guess what the dues are? Bear in mind that other northeastern hiking clubs are charging $50 or $60 per year, and one gilt-edged group holds up its membership for something like $75. Do you know what the 46ers dues are? Eight dollars. Well, they ask everyone for another buck or two to cover mailing costs. Here is a group with no hidden agenda, no bureaucracy, no padded costs—just dedication to their beloved mountains and the experience of being among them.

Dr. Ketchledge, who died in 2010, spoke for many of the 46ers when he expressed his own deep-felt sense of stewardship for the High Peak region that gave him and others so much enjoyment: “For 29 years I’ve climbed in this country,” he told one workshop while standing on the very summit of Mount Jo, the panorama of the High Peaks circling around him and his listeners. “In a pantheistic sense, all of this,” he said, sweeping his arm over the breathtaking landscape, “is part of me.” It’s that kind of sense of personal involvement and obligation that has sparked so much good work to help preserve the mountain environment.

Next time you hear someone criticize a peakbagger, think about these men and women in the Adirondacks, tirelessly passing out litter bags, tugging branches around to brush in an eroding trail, toting grass seed and fertilizer up a mountain, or giving up a splendid May weekend to help spread the message of stewardship to others.

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