Adirondack Peeks Winter 2024

TALKING POINTS Sherry Roulston, #12512, with Phil Corell, #224WV

Give a boy address and accomplish ments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

All photos courtesy of Phil Corell

Photo credit: Sherry Roulston, #12512

I t’s a beautiful August morning. Driving Route 87 I spot the fire tower on top of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain and soon I’m driving parallel to the mountain’s stupendous granite cliffs. I lean forward and gaze up through the wind shield looking for rock climbers. I’m meeting Phil Corell and Kim Morse in Willsboro. Exiting the highway, I pass Rattle snake Mountain trailhead parking lot; it’s a busy morning with only a few spots left. I pull onto a wooded road, take a ninety-degree left turn that goes up a small hill, and spot a sign that says “Corell” on the right! Upon opening my car door, the invigorating smell of balsam fir hits me, and the silent, majestic woods greet me. Phil meets us outside and gives us a tour of his property. He’s owned the land since the 1980s and eventually built the cottage; he recalls the numerous bundles of shingles he, his wife, Mary, and their friends stained and hung. Long Pond spreads out before us in the back. I see no signs of life on the other side of the 400-acre tranquil lake framed by Sugarloaf Mountain. Phil informs me that the Long Pond Conservancy purchased forty-nine acres on the western shore and succeeded in keeping it forever wild! Phil’s been a member of the Adirondack 46ers for 62 years. He climbed his first high peak at the age of 10 and became 46er #224 in 1962 at the age of 16. He’s been involved at the grassroots level for 52 years volunteering in numerous roles from leader of the Outdoors Skills Work shop committee to president. Phil has been the treasurer A Conversation with Phil Corell, #224WV

for 23 years and has streamlined the membership process online, allowing the Forty-Sixers to become a major donor for other organizations with the same goal of preserving the Adirondack High Peaks. He’s completed 27 rounds of the high peaks including 6 rounds in the winter. He’s climbed Mount Marcy 67 times. He’s written extensively about hiking in the Adirondacks and about the 46ers and the changes he has witnessed over his lifetime. Phil’s Ad irondack journey started as a summer camper on this very lake in 1956. * * * SR (Sherry Roulston): What inspired your parents to send their ten-year-old, only child from Mount Kisco, New York, to an Adirondack summer camp for eight weeks? PC (Phil Corell): They were older parents. My dad was 40; my mom was maybe 38 when I was born. As a child of older parents, I think they were looking to get me out of a bor ing summer while trying to find alternatives to Little League baseball and swimming lessons. They read the advertise ments for all the summer camps in the New York Times and that's where they learned about Camp Pok-O-Moon shine for boys. Once they met Colonel Swan and his wife, “Aunt Sarah,” who visited my parents’ home, any concerns about sending me to camp were put to rest immediately.

WINTER 2024 | 5