Adirondack 46er – Honored to Get Them All Done

By Marie Bosman

Becoming an Adirondack 46er these days could seem like a minor achievement. I finished the last of the 46 high peaks in August 2022, on Whiteface Mountain. On that same afternoon, I saw at least three others who also finished their 46er quests on Whiteface. It was a gorgeous perfect-as-only-the-Adirondacks-can-be day, so surely there were others also on other peaks. I knew of at least one other finisher that day, a little four-year old, who hiked Marcy as her final peak, the youngest ever person to become a 46er. What do I have to be proud about… When I received my certificate it said, congratulations, 46er finisher number 14,803… that is far back in a very long line, was my first thought. In 2022 alone, over 800 persons became Adirondack 46ers!

Some people are kind and give a little wow or good-for-you when they learn I did them all. My closest family and friends know to say, so proud of you, so impressed; how I appreciate them. Interesting were those who have never set foot on a trail but would be quick to tell me about so and so who has achieved way beyond what I have done. For them I have one sincere wish, to get out there and not only see what it takes, but see what it gives, that humble awesome joy of a day walking mountains.

Talk to enough people while hiking, and you do stay humble. I might be on a high from just having done Couchsachraga, but then meet someone who is both a summer and winter 46er. I still need to muster the courage to do a single High Peak in winter. In my last summer of efforts, I spent several weekends in a row in the mountains. Is that a decent effort? Not sure. My one hiking buddy has a friend who is almost done hiking all 46 high peaks in each month of the year, a 46er 12 times over! I would not even know how to keep that spreadsheet. 

I met a woman on the trails who was almost done with round 32 of finishing all 46. She was my senior in age and in speed! I saw her several times, practically jogging and not even out of breath. She had a trail name that I wish I heard properly through my huffing and puffing. I do remember her friend’s trail name, Barbie, who has multiple rounds of winter and summer 46ers under her pretty belt – and magically manages to do them looking like a million dollars. I wondered what my excuse was for muddy shins and bloody knees. I have friends who did them all in just a couple of years, or in only a few months, or even unsupported in only six days! It took me more than 20 years…

So yes, my achievement sounds minor in comparison. But my perspective is major: I have done them all and I know them all and I know how it feels to do them all. Plus, not only have I met many wonderful people along those trails, I hiked them with the most amazing friends. When you traverse hours and days on terrain not meant for human survival, it is exactly the human companions who make it possible to get through a quest like this. They include my husband Johan, our children, and 10 more special friends. A special deep bow of admiration to my friend Linda, a 46er long ago, who taught me to camp, rock climb, pay attention, never fear mud, pack light, and who planned so many of the hardest and most remote outings. Knowing these mountains, knowing camaraderie, these are the true gains and gifts that will stay with me for the rest of my life. 

A new kind of love imprinted my heart is doing the first one, Big Slide, when two friends who have since become 46ers introduced me to the High Peaks soon after I moved to New York from South Africa. Nothing prepared me for the wildness, the quietly roaring presence of these mountains. Their innocent green-carpet-look from a distance is more like the skin of one large organism that barely allows you to wander its innards. And wander is an understatement. More like endless marching, climbing, maneuvering over boulders and through streams, interrupted with many moments of trying to find something to hold on to, or just trying not to stumble or slide.

Something changes your soul when you do more and more of them. I slowly picked away at them, to reach 11 after 10 years, and 21 after another ten years. Like so many of us, the pandemic lockdowns pushed (or pulled?) me outside too. I did seven in 2020, when those days in the wilderness funny enough were the most social days of that year for me. Don’t those mountains always give you exactly what you need, solitude when life is crazy, social contact when the world shuts down! 

The next year I managed to reach 32. I felt my heart grow fonder of those sun dappled spaces, those days of constant moving, those relentless uneven trails, those small moments of finding a view… I also felt my body telling me this is not getting easier! Yes, I hope to hike many more years, but there are no guarantees. I decided to give it my all and get them done in 2022.

In that last summer I traversed 14 High Peaks. It was like speed dating; I can never fall out of love again. My heart grew a whole new space to hold this love for the mountains that now is 46 times larger than the love I first felt back in 1999. The mountains calling me echoes into that space. My heart is yearning to go back, yearning to spend more time there, again, and again and often. And I will. Maybe I will go back and do Marcy with my husband who has never done that one. Or do Haystack when the sun is shining to actually see that famous view after doing it in pouring rain last year. Hopefully, accompanying my friend Kathy who is so close to finishing them all.

I have to say, quietly but surely, being an Adirondack 46er is for me personally a major achievement. I am honored to have been able to get them all done. That day on Whiteface, my friend Michelle came from Kansas to hike with me, my husband rode his bike up to meet me, and my friend Linda drove with her family just to give a congratulatory hug. It is a dismal wilderness, it is paradise, we cannot survive there for long, yet nature lets us enjoy this part of her, we just need to grab a friend go and do it. And might I say, 14,803 may sound like a long line of people, but that forms less than 0.08% of New York’s 19.5 million residents. To be a part of that is no minor achievement!

Marie Bosman (mbosman@nycap.rr.com) lives in Niskayuna with her husband, Johan (Athlete Profile, May 2010). They have two children, Claudette and Gerhard, and son-in-law, Matt. Johan joined on 22 peaks, Gerhard on six and Claudette on three. The 10 hiking friends are Linda (17), Michelle (nine), Kathy (seven), Gene RIP (four), George (four), Tom (three), Joe and Paula (two each), Bill and Carrie (Big Slide).