Adirondack Peeks Summer 2023

In the next fifty years all of our open spaces from the Brooks Range to Central Park will have to ab sorb a tremendous amount of use and stave off many threats to their present state. It is hoped that they remain much as they are now. Preservation will not happen all by itself though and groups like the 46ers have a real responsibility to make sure that wise decisions are made regarding our precious open land.

Discussions of the future of the 46ers should emphasize the positive contributions that we could make and not the real or imagined harm done in the past. A group of people selected by the perhaps ar tificial, but still valid, criteria of having climbed 46 Adirondack peaks can make a major contribution in experience and knowledge to any plan for the maintenance and preservation of the wilderness.

We have too many "positive" things going for us now to think of disbanding. Rather, I believe the organization should be "turned around" with a strong thrust on good conservation and environmental improvement, with an opportunity for new members to qualify - after completion of a certain number of hours of conservation work, plus their climbs, of course. Glenn W. Fish, #536 I feel there is great value in continuing the 46er organization, even though it might be necessary to make a complete about face for some purposes. There is a mental, spiritual and physical benefit to be derived from living with the mountains. The idea of there being an organization, such as the 46ers, gives to some people a reason for being, when they may have lost their other objectives. The idea of the 46 is a catalyst which produces a much wider appreciation of the mountains. Bob Starbuck, #156 All that is good in the 46er program will be carried on by others in the State. That for which we have been criticized will die a natural death. We have been guilty of loving ourselves too much, and the mountains and forests too little. Orra Phelps, #47 Selected Responses to the Questionnaire

Among the 46ers I have talked to this year at one time or another, I doubt there was a single one who seriously thought we could walk away from our responsibilities as an active recreational club that could easily add a dimension of public service in the environmental issue to our " reason - to -be." The younger members are wholeheartedly imbued with the environmental ethics and are prepared to back up their ideals with action. I suspect it is some of the older, less-active 46ers who may entertain thoughts of the Club disbanding. Similarly, when I hear that Peter Paine or someone else has argued that the 46ers should dissolve, it is the earlier 46er image they are objecting to, not the constructively motivated 46ers of the 1970s who CAN and WILL, I am convinced, be a positive force in protecting the High Peaks. [. . . ] These people, then, feel climbing the 46 is the first step; the initiation, so to speak. Then the job, once they are members, is to DO something for their beloved peaks, which now suffer from over -use and abuse. It is these people, the ones who really are the 46ers, that I want to direct into constructive activities of the sort we have only dallied in in the past. E. H. Ketchledge, #507V 46er President (1975–1978) The end of patch seeking will lighten the burden of the woods. Steven Resnick, #697

SUMMER 2023 | 15