NAME THAT Mountain GracePeak

Grace typing letters to aspiring Forty-Sixers. Credit: Adirondack History Museum (Elizabethtown)

WRITTEN BY ROBERT C. LAWRENCE Part of the "WHAT'S WITH THOSE ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN NAMES?" Series.

While kayaking on beautiful Lake Durant near Blue Mountain Lake, New York, one June day, my wife, Carol Ann, asked, "Where does Blue Mountain get its name?" So, we visited the nearby Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake (Adirondack Experience) to find a book on the subject. But, there was no such book. So, I wrote, What's With Those Adirondack Mountain Names? The book alphabetically lists over a hundred Adirondack Mountain place names or oronyms, but only four Adirondack mountains have women's names.

Grace Peak, a forty-six-high Adirondack peak, is second in the Simply Saratoga series "What's With Those Adirondack WOMEN Mountain Names?"

On June 12, 2014, East Dix Mountain, North Hudson, Essex County, was renamed Grace Peak for Grace Leach Hudowalski (1906-2004) by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Grace was the first woman, the ninth climber of the forty-six highest Adirondack mountains, and the only person born (Ticonderoga) and raised in (Minerva) the Adirondack Park with a mountain namesake.

Doug Arnold chaired a committee to change the name of East Dix Mountain to Grace Peak, which was a lengthy process but ultimately led to its renaming. In the Fall 2014 edition of Adirondack Peeks, a magazine of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers, Doug Arnold remarked, "In today's world, reality-television stars, overpaid sports figures, and egocentric politicians are offered up to us by the media as our heroes. With the naming of Grace Peak, it is refreshing to know that a woman, born in 1906, who made such a positive impact on so many lives and whose love of the Adirondacks has had so many farreaching effects is now recognized for her lifelong passion."

Grace was the first president and historian for the well-known Adirondack Forty-Sixers (46ers). A person achieves a 46er status by climbing the forty-six highest Adirondack New York State peaks and documenting their climbs. During her fifty-nine years as a historian, Grace wrote over sixty thousand letters to aspiring hikers wanting to climb all forty-six high mountains. Grace often told hikers the advice her father gave her on her first climb of Mount Marcy at age 16: "It's not important whether you make it to the summit… what's important is how you make the climb."

In her professional world, Grace was a prominent government official responsible for promoting New York State tourism.

To learn more about Grace's accounts of her climbs and mountain love, view the documentary The Mountains Will Wait for You, directed by Fredrick Schwoebel and narrated by his father-in-law, singer-songwriter Johnny Cash.

Her legacy will live through her mountain, Grace Hudowalski Charitable Trust (1995), and letters. Furthermore, she encouraged young women "to get out of doors, to get lots of fresh air to bring color to your cheeks and zest in your step. " (Special Centennial Edition of Bob Marshall's 1922 The High Peaks of the Adirondacks, a Grace Hudowalski Charitable Trust Publication)

What's With Those Adirondack Mountain

Names? (The Troy Book Makers) is available at the following retail locations: Market Block Books (Troy), The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza (Albany), Open Door Bookstore (Schenectady), Northshire Bookstore, Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company (Saratoga), Adirondack Country Store (Northville), St. Andrews Ace Hardware (Queensbury) in many retail establishments in the Adirondack Park and on Amazon.com.