Adirondack Peeks Winter 2025

he had acquired special permission for us to be there. He described the Adirondack Park and its mix of private and state lands as an experiment. But he assured us that as a result of its complex and unconventional oversight, it is among the most protected land on the planet. This topic lent itself well to Ron then recounting the saga to rename East Dix for Grace Hudowalski, an effort in which he was passionately involved. With the peak under the purview of several entities, Ron explained, many had to sign off on any change of name. Meanwhile, Fred Schwoebel was making a documentary about Grace, The Mountains Will Wait for You . He needed a narrator for the film and just so happened to be married to Tara Cash, daughter of the late, great Johnny Cash, who was not yet late at the time. “The Man in Black” agreed to voice the film. It seems, according to Ron, that the documentary brought Grace back to life and positively impacted the decision to rename the mountain in her honor. After our visit to the dock, we hopped in our vehicles and drove back down the road we had come in on, stopping before we reached the end to park in a small lot with access to the Old Military Trail, where we would officially begin our hike. The flat and aptly named wooded trail had once been a passage for troops during the French and Indian War, Ron said. I began to imagine that we were walking in the footsteps of hoards of battle-worn soldiers, hauling loads far more stifling than our day packs.

We stopped often along the way up Grandpa Pete Mountain — not so much to rest, as the journey wasn’t particularly strenuous — but simply to appreciate the view from the shore of Clear Pond and to learn more from Ron. In addition to riveting recounts of his own Adirondack adventures and cautionary tales from his volunteer work with the New York State Forest Rangers, Ron is a seemingly endless source of information about the history and politics of the Adirondack Park and the 46er organization, as well as the natural sciences at work in the mountains. A question from the group about whether Ron planned to ski the newest slides on Mount Colden, which had appeared just a few weeks prior, led to a short lesson in what causes these magnificent mountain features. The High Peaks are largely composed of granite, he explained, and the trees and other growth that keep hikers encapsulated in forest for much of their climbs are rooted in a relatively thin bed of soil that blankets the granite. According to Ron, when large amounts of moisture are able to penetrate the underside of this bed — such as when a tree uproots and creates an opening in the forest floor, coupled with periods of heavy rain — the bedrock becomes saturated and is no longer able to cling to the sloped rock beneath it. That’s when it slides down the mountain, taking all of the embedded flora with it. And, in case you were wondering, yes, of course Ron plans to ski the new slides.

L to R Gabe Dickens, Sherry Roulston #12512, Ashleigh Livingston #ASP31018, Adrienne Scivolette #12235W, Kim Fortin #16119, Ron Konowitz #487V SKI - Photo Credit Gabe Dickens

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