The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake is set to honor The 46ers with the 2017-2018 Harold K. Hochschild Award at its annual benefit gala on Saturday, July 28 from 6 to 9 pm.

The Adirondack Forty-Sixers, Inc. is a hiking and service club whose members have climbed the summits of the 46 peaks over 4,000 feet in elevation in the Adirondack mountains of northern New York state.

The Harold K. Hochschild Award is dedicated to the memory of the museum’s founder, whose passion for the Adirondacks, its people, and its environment inspired the creation of the institution and the establishment of the Adirondack Park Agency. Presented annually to recipients in a wide range of fields throughout the Adirondack Park, it honors their work to improve the region’s culture and quality of life.

have long served as advocates for the conservation of the natural environment in the Adirondacks.

Since the 1970s, the Adirondack Forty-Sixers has worked with the State Department of Environmental Conservation, providing volunteers for trail improvement and maintenance projects.

Since 1995, the Adirondack 46R Conservation Trust has provided funding for “conservation and preservation projects, environmental and historical research, and educational initiatives that develop or enhance the Adirondack Mountain Preserve in upstate New York.”

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the climb that started it all – Robert and George Marshall’s ascent to the top of Whiteface Mountain with their guide Herbert Clark.

It took them another seven years to climb all the high peaks in the Adirondacks, during which time Robert Marshall published a pamphlet, High Peaks of the Adirondacks, describing their hikes.

This booklet inspired later hikers who sought to reach the same heights as the Marshalls and Clark, and in 1936 the Forty-Sixers of Troy was formed, later to become the Adirondack Forty-Sixers.

One of the club’s early (and best-known) members, Grace Hudowalski, began the tradition of recording members’ climbs that persists today. The club boasts just over 10,000 members who have climbed all 46 high peaks since the Marshall brothers first set out one hundred years ago.

The museum’s 121-acre, 24-building campus will be transformed at twilight for a glamorous evening that will include an elegant dinner under the festival tent, live and silent auctions, and music.

Individual tickets are available for 46ers ($206), at the Regular ($250), any 46ers ($206), Supporter ($500), Lead Supporter ($1,000) and Young Friend (40 and younger, $100) levels. Sponsors ($5,000) receive one table for up to eight, Patrons ($10,000) one table of up to 10, and Benefactors ($25,000) two tables of 10. The evening supports the museum’s educational programs, new special exhibitions, visiting artists, Adirondack heritage preservation and permanent galleries. Tickets can be purchased by calling (518) 352-7311 ext. 119.

For additional information, call (518) 352-7311 or click here.