Adirondack Peeks Winter 2025

Dear PEEKS editors, I enjoyed reading about Jim Goodwin and Grace Hudowalski in the Summer 2025 Peeks issue and thought I would share some old memories. I met Grace on July 18, 1972, when I was 17, the day after I completed the 46 peaks on Allen. I couldn’t wait to let her know that I had completed them, so my hiking buddy Jesse Bussard and I drove to her Boulders camp on the eastern shore of Schroon Lake, and I introduced myself. When I gave her my name, she asked me if I was related to Kim Hart, and I told her that he was my father. One of the joys of being raised to hike the Adirondacks with my father was that he seemed to know everybody who was anybody in the Adirondack hiking world, as he had been chairman of the Adirondack Mountain Club Winter Activities Committee for 10 years (mostly in the ’50s), and involved in other ways, such as making the first recorded winter ascent of Iroquois, with Kay Flickinger. Grace gave me the little 46er quiz, shared some observations about my father, and gave me lots of encouragement. A few weeks later, I received from her a letter in green ink on 46er letterhead, telling me that I was officially a 46er, and that my number was 788. I still have that letter, and I enjoy rereading it from time to time. I was delighted when her video biography, narrated by Johnny Cash, was released on CD, and even more so when East Dix was renamed Grace Peak. I never had the pleasure of meeting Jim Goodwin, but my parents knew him, and one time, when I was about 10 years old, we all stopped at his house on the road from Dear Editors, I climbed Mount Marcy, my first high peak, in the summer of 1964. A dozen or so Camp Chingachgook 10-year-olds had slept at Marcy Dam the night before and were huffing our way up the Van Hoevenberg trail with our counselors. The early sunny sky started clouding up above Indian Falls and got increasingly gray as we reached the plateau, at which point the skies opened up in a spectacular display of lightning, thunder and downpour. We huddled Dear Editors With great interest I read John Borel’s article, “Adirondack Centuries: Meeting Grace Hudowalski, Jackrabbit Johanssen” in the Summer 2025 issue. It was well written and with great love for the subject. I am honored to be mentioned by name in it. The part about the Canadian Ski Marathon and Jackrabbit brought back great memories. Congratulations,

Keene Valley to The Garden. Unfortunately, Jim was out, so my parents spoke with his wife for a while, and then we left. I think we then went down to see Bob Denniston, who lived in Keene Valley. Jonathan (Jody) Hart #788

Jody Hart #788 and his son in Yosemite Valley right after they completed the John Muir Trail 2024

scared in the back of the Plateau Lean-to as the storm raged outside. Then, as the rain ended and the wind died down, we stepped outside and the gray mass of clouds to the north split as if axed and rolled off the summit cone, framing Mount Marcy against a deep blue sky. The very definition of cloud-splitter! I’ve never forgotten the awe of that moment. Peter Cohen #2425

John on the silver. I only managed a bronze, the same year that you did, perhaps 1981. Believe it or not on a pair of woodies. They were worn to the bone by the time I reached the Rideau Canal… It was my first or second try. I ran a couple more times, but no cigar. Jackrabbit made it to 111 years old, that’s a life! Dan Golopentia

WINTER 2025 | 47