Adirondack Peeks Winter 2023

history as well as documenting the life works of Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy in Bootlegger of the Soul , what are your hopes for preserving the history of the Adirondack 46ers? SL: A large piece of the 46ers’ archive is safely stored and catalogued in the New York State Library’s archives. That material includes hiker correspondence with Grace Hudowalski, hiker finishing questionnaires, Winter 46er records, the summit log books, and some historical records. However, it doesn’t include the club’s administrative records—minutes from the Executive Committee meetings, financial records, committee reports, correspondence, etc. That’s the material that really tells the club’s story. Boxes of the administrative documents used to be passed along from club president to club president. Now much of it is in a storage locker. The problem with all archives these days is that so much of an organization’s business is conducted via email and through texts and social media. It is possible to download information from all social media platforms, but how do we get everyone who is conducting 46er business to do that? How and where would you store all those digital files? What part of an organization’s history is important to preserve? Is it worth it to keep it all? I don’t have answers to those questions. SR: Well, it’s wonderful that we have so much archived at the New York State Library. I read an article in a 1997 issue of PEEKS by Fred Johnson #1788 titled “Quest for Ideas—Safeguarding the Past.” Apparently, Grace thought of the idea to contact the curators at the New York State Library who were very receptive of her idea to make [it] the repository for all the past records of the 46ers. Fred describes the initial box loads that were brought to the library: eighty-two boxes, of which 65 were correspondence with hikers. He writes, “As I write this article, Grace’s dining room table is overflowing with a mountain of paperwork from the latest group of climbers.” Grace asked Fred to write the article to inform

hikers and researchers exactly how to go about accessing these documents. It’s pretty easy, all you have to do is go to the NYS library website at: www.nysl. nysed.gov and type Adirondack 46er or Grace Hudowalski in the search bar and all sorts of references come up. If you want to look at your own climbing file the recommended procedure is to call the library first, to make a review appointment. SL: The history chapters in all the past 46er books are valuable resources for those interested in the club’s history. Future projects for the club might be to digitize some of the administrative

Suzanne and George's winter finish on Macomb

the High Peaks Unit Management Plan (HPUMP) and the need for an internal succession plan, which eventually took the name of the “Grace Committee.” As a volunteer member of the Grace Committee, can you speak about that period and of the changes that took place to help advance the organization into the next generation of growth? SL: There were a number of issues that came to the forefront during the 1990s. The club’s membership was increasing at a rate where the resulting workload was becoming unmanageable for the club’s two stalwarts, Executive Secretary/ Treasurer Ditt Dittmar and Historian Grace Hudowalski. These two people had held their positions with the club since its founding in 1948—more than 50 years. How to help Grace and Ditt lessen their workload became a priority. The Executive Committee managed to convince Ditt that a computer would make things easier for him. He wasn’t wild about entering the computer age, but at the age of 76

material and make it available for researchers. I’m not volunteering for that task. The club has been posting questions about the 46er history on its Facebook page, “Throwback Thursday.” That’s a great way to educate current hikers and keep 46er history alive. The “From the Vault” section that you have started in PEEKS where you reprint something from a past issue is also a great way to highlight 46er history and the people who have had major impacts on the direction the club has taken to embrace responsible and sustainable recreation in the High Peaks. SR: You wrote the chapter on the history of the Adirondack 46ers in its book Heaven Up-h’isted-ness! as well as the preface to the 2022 Centennial Edition of Robert Marshall’s The High Peaks of the Adirondacks. In Up h’isted-ness! “Part V: The 1990s—End of an Era,” you write in great detail of the internal and external turmoil the 46er organization faced that threatened to weaken the core of its foundation—the club’s response to

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