Grace Peak
Down where fingers
hold a wind
scourged turbulence,
lurid and buried
in the fractures,
your mountain grace
blisters like iron smelted,
and the mosaic of your
eyes light all over.
Wrapped in cold teardrops,
below the grit of exiled scents,
at your peak I feel astronomical,
like Asimov’s balloons rising
through a diaphanous fog.
The Adirondack Forty-Sixers and the Town of North Hudson are sponsoring a day-long festival on June 20, 2015 at the Town of North Hudson Park, off State Route 9, to celebrate the official renaming of Grace Peak.
The 46ers led a 12-year campaign to rename East Dix in the Dix Mountain Wilderness “Grace Peak” in honor of Grace Hudowalski, the first woman to climb the 46 High Peaks, and long-time promoter of the recreational opportunities in the Adirondacks. The United States Board of Geographic Names approved the 46ers’ petition for the naming of Grace Peak in June, 2014. » Continue Reading.
Shortly after moving to the Adirondacks in 1996, I climbed Giant Mountain. Not only was it my first High Peak, it was the first time I’d climbed anything higher than the hill in the back yard where I grew up.
While incredibly rewarding, the hike was harder than I had imagined even though I was a fit, thirty-year-old marathon runner. It was humbling. Nevertheless, like many others before me, I was hooked on the Adirondack Mountains, and I wanted more.
That same year Grace Leach Hudowalski celebrated her ninetieth birthday, an occasion covered in the local papers. I’d never heard of Grace or the Adirondack Forty-Sixers, but I was smitten by the photo of her beaming with her birthday cake, proudly sporting her Forty-Sixer patch. » Continue Reading.
On Friday I hiked Grace Peak (formerly East Dix) from Route 73 in Keene Valley. Look for the stone bridge that crosses the Boquet River, there is small parking area right after the bridge. The herd path starts along the South side of the river and continues along the North and South Fork. The path is unmarked but very easy to follow. This part of the Dix Mountain wilderness is beautiful open forest with mostly flat terrain. To reach the summit you can take the slide or continue along the herd path to the col between Grace and Carson (South Dix).
Less than two months after hikers placed a commemorative sign on top of Grace Peak, state officials have decided it must come down.
On June 21, a large group of hikers gathered on the summit to celebrate—with champagne and cake—the renaming of the 4,012-foot mountain from East Dix to Grace Peak in honor of the late Grace Hudowalski, the longtime historian of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers.
For years, Adirondack Forty-Sixers have been referring to East Dix as Grace Peak, but now the name change is official.
On Thursday, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted to rename the 4,012-foot peak after Grace Hudowalski, the first woman to climb all forty-six of the High Peaks and the longtime historian of the Forty-Sixers organization.
Doug Arnold, chairman of the group’s Grace Peak Committee, worked twelve years to get support from local and state officials for the name change.
“Mountain naming is not a frivolous thing,” he said. “Ultimately, she was proven worthy, and I think that is a testament to the Forty-Sixers.” » Continue Reading.
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