All Over Albany

Grace Peak

East Dix, one of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks, was recently renamed Grace Peak in honor of Grace Hudowalski, one of the original 46ers (she was #9). Here's the mountain on a map.

Hudowalski lived in both Troy and Albany, and Paul Grondahl recently had a nice story about her legacy and what she's meant to many Adirondack hikers.

From an Adirondack Forty-Sixer bio of Hudowalski, in reference to her first hike up Mt. Marcy:

Reflecting on that trip years later she said,

"It was tough. I was on all fours sometimes. I didn't think I was going to get there. But I had to get to the top - there was some reason. God knows what it was but I had to go on. And on the top just for a fraction of a moment, the clouds lifted while I was there and I looked down and there a mile below me was Lake Tear of the Clouds, the Hudson's highest source. And you know, that did something to me. I had seen something - I felt it. I never forgot the mountain and I never forgot that trip."

From that point on she said, "I never talked about anything but mountains. I talked about them, I wrote about them. I gave speeches about them."

Hudowalksi passed away in 2004 at the age of 98.

As Douglas Arnold, the Forty-Sixer who led the effort to name the mountain in honor of Hudowalksi, said to the Syracuse Post-Standard: "Everyone has a mentor, a coach, a parent or grandparent, friend, or teacher who influences the outcome of their life. These angels are remembered but rarely honored. Grace Hudowalksi was a mentor to thousands of people as she shared her enthusiasm for the Adirondacks with everyone."

Earlier on AOA:
+ The Winter 46ers
+ How to hike the High Peaks and not be That Guy

photo via The Adirondack Forty-Sixers