Adirondack Peeks Summer 2025

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Dear PEEKS editors, I just received my Winter 2024 PEEKS magazine in the mail today. And I immediately noticed you had added the view of the pictures along with the photo credit. So you had identified the cover picture as the view from Roaring Brook Falls!! Hi Sherry and Kim, I got a kick out of the letter and photo from Lee Barry and Luis Vasquez that appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of PEEKS . I see that the 27-year-old version of me had more and darker hair than the current 76-year-old version. I recall the February 1976 trip pictured, because Lee was a well-organized leader, because he became a winter 46er on Sawteeth, and because it rained overnight and on the march out. 1976 was my first full season with the Rochester Winter Mountaineering Society. I went on all six weekend trips that year to gain fitness and snow camping experience for a Dear Sherry, I just finished reading the latest very enjoyable issue of Adirondack PEEKS and thought that before I forget, I should quickly write my memories of Grace Hudowalski and Noah Rondeau. Here goes! I was a camper, CIT, and counselor at Silver Lake Camp in Hawkeye, New York, where I learned all my outdoor skills and was slowly transformed from a rather sluggish preteen into a lifetime lover of the Adirondacks. That transformation happened during the summer when I realized that I would soon be too old to be a camper and would not be able to return. Galvanized into action, I completed all that was necessary to be a CIT and thus began my 60+ years of climbing in the mountains. But this is background for these two little anecdotes about Grace and Noah, both of whom came (at different times) to SLC’s usual Sunday night campfires when the camp gathered for some sort of presentation. Grace came, introduced by a young camper who could not pronounce her last name, and laughed and laughed. She The PEEKS Winter 2024 edition was great! Learning about the many accomplished hikers, volunteers, and officers who keep our organization running is inspirational. Phil Corell is amazing! My family and I have been fortunate to meet him on the trail.

I requested this recently and you came through. It makes a big difference in my enjoyment of the pictures in the magazine. Happy New Year! John Almasi #5804

May trip to Denali. I learned lots from the RWMS veterans, including three of those pictured—Lee Barry, Jim Boomer, and Jack Freeman. I am saddened by the deaths of Jim and Jack, but tickled to read that Lee survives at age 101. RWMS has been a big part of the Adirondack winter scene from 1966 to the present. In fact, from 1976 to 1991, RWMS contributed 24 of the first 100 winter 46ers. After sixteen rounds of the 46 (five in winter), I am substantially retired from winter camping, but ever grateful for the experiences and friendships shared in RWMS. talked about her early climbs and gave us each a checkoff list of the 46 high peaks. I kept that list, filling it slowly whenever I had a chance to climb. When I finally completed the 46, about 30 years later, I sent that dog-eared copy to Grace who wrote back saying how she laughed when she saw it. She was, as so many of us know, warm and gracious. Noah came to another campfire, toting a slim, battered aluminum case that bore on its side the inscription “Norah Rondeau, Adirondack Hermit,” about the size of a briefcase. After his talk he opened the case and extracted autographed photos of himself for sale. His talk was sermonic in its essence—he told us again and again that he became a hermit because he didn’t have the money for an “eddication” and so was forced to head into the wilderness to fend for himself. Like many others, years later, I made a pilgrimage to the site of his famous hermitage, though he was long gone. Thanks for reading these short but sweet memories! Ruth Gais #3160 Keep breaking trail! Don Berens, #1741W

My wife, Cathy, and sons, Doug and Greg, finished their 46 on Haystack in October 1993. While we were celebrating with several family members, three hikers joined us on top—one of whom was Phil, president of the 46ers at the time! I told our boys that we had arranged for

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