Adirondack Trail Improvement Society

Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved the Adirondacks. My family has a house up there, right next to our grandparents, where we spend a number of weeks every summer. For the last five years we have stayed in our house, before that up the hill in the larger one. The houses are right outside of Keene Valley, a town of less than a thousand people, nestled in the heart of the High Peaks, the region so named because it is home to all of the tallest mountains in the park. The mountains are incredibly beautiful, the views from their tops exceedingly spectacular. They are just waiting to be climbed. Indeed, in the last decade hiking in the High Peaks has doubled, leading to issues with some of the more popular, accessible mountains being over-crowded. Many of the people who climb in the park aspire to be 46ers, a term for someone who has climbed the 46 mountains in the Adirondacks that are over 4,000 feet. For a…