History, Natural History & the Arts
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents in the Adirondacks. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Man Rescued After 30-Foot Fall At Giant Mountain, Adirondack High Peaks
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced the permanent protection of forested land in the Towns of Chesterfield and Lewis in Essex County. [Read more…] about 2,200 Acres Protected In Split Rock Wildway, Eastern Adirondacks
The Adirondacks are prone to powerful windstorms, isolated tornadoes, and occasional hurricanes, derechos, and microbursts. Perhaps the second most destructive of these in modern Adirondack history (next to the 1998 Ice Storm) occurred in November, 1950. [Read more…] about Remembering The Big Blowdown of 1950
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has presented its 2020 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award, the organization’s highest honor, to Kevin Chlad, Director of Government Relations for the Adirondack Council with offices in Elizabethtown and in Albany. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wild Presents 2020 Wilderness Award
The stress of our sheer numbers on wild lands, other hikers, summit stewards, forest and assistant rangers and local communities and volunteers bordering Routes 73 and 86 this hiking season – and many before this – easily disconnects and untethers us from the historical and philosophical roots of wilderness preservation and management. [Read more…] about Dave Gibson: Establish A Wilderness Training Center in NYS
Two conservation organizations and a state college today released the preliminary results of a two-month hiker survey in and around the High Peaks Wilderness Area showing that the 673 hikers surveyed came there seeking solitude and wildness, and would favor limits on visitation to prevent damage to the “forever wild” Forest Preserve. [Read more…] about Survey: High Peaks Hikers Seek Wildness, Solitude, Support Limits
The trail up Hurricane Mountain, in Keene, Essex County, ascends approximately 2,000 feet over 3.4 miles to the Fire Tower located in a designated historic area on the summit, within the Hurricane Mountain Wilderness. [Read more…] about Featured Adirondack Hike: Hurricane Mountain Firetower
“For The Sheer Joy Of Climbing”
These words will likely sound familiar to anyone who has undertaken the journey to become a 46er, as they are inscribed on a plaque at the summit of Esther Mountain, High Peak #28. The plaque was placed on the summit in 1939 by The Adirondack 46ers to honor “the indomitable spirit” of the peak’s namesake, Esther McComb. [Read more…] about A Mountaintop Plaque Recalls Teenage Adventurer Esther McComb
The Whiteface Landing Trail in the McKenzie Mountain Wilderness, in Wilmington, Essex County, ascends 6.0 miles and 3,320 feet from the trailhead on State Route 86 to the 4,867-foot summit and its 360 degree views. [Read more…] about Featured Adirondack Hike: Whiteface Mountain
This 2020 Columbus Day Weekend, peak use of parts of the High Peaks and Giant Mountain Wilderness areas in the Adirondack Park have again be exceeded.
Now is the time to consider a permit reservation or limited entry system for key points of entry into these wilderness areas as necessary, helpful, practical, and practicable, says Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve. [Read more…] about Adk Wild: DEC Should Test High Peaks Online Permit System