New high definition Adirondacks film premiering Wednesday, 5/14, 9:00PM

[MichaelJ]

Any of these ?

 

[una_dogger]

Any of these ?

I don't think so, but "Adirondack Wild" looks interesting!

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Any of these ?

I purchased both the "Adirondack Wild" and "Adirondack Visions" DVDs from the OrchardBeat website which uses paypal. The website has short preview clips of each DVD. I highly recommend both DVDs. Each are mostly scenery (much of it backcountry) with music soundtracks. Both have extra features and a commentary track which identifies many of the locations. Both were broadcast on PBS within the last decade.

 

[Jay H]

It's on the PBS website:

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=3087936

Jay

 

[adirobdack46r]

I have a question about the reference to Bob Marshall on the show. They said he was the first to climb all 46. On the 46r member roster he is listed as #3, however #s 1 and 2 started and finished on the same peaks on the same dates as Bob, so it looks like they did them together. So I wonder why Marshall is the one getting all the credit. It raised my eyebrow when they mentioned him doing 12 in one day. They did not specify if it was during his first time through or not. 12 in one day without trails would be astonishing. Maybe he did the 12 in one day later on after some trails had been established. Either way it is an amazing feat. It had to have been so much harder back then without the gear we all enjoy today.

 

[moonrock]

The things I found most interesting about the program were:

1) The number of people seeking respite in the Adirondacks a century ago, from cities that were filthy and blighted even before SUVs.

2) The resulting push for preservation, and the seemingly unlikely "land reform" away from exclusive holdings of "robber-barons".

3) The impact of streptomycin on the sanitorium communities.

4) The scale of logging (and the subsequent reforestation). I kept picturing the view from Noonmark - of birch forests lapping up against the steeper, evergreen-covered pitches of the Dix Range.

My sister lived in Lake Placid from 1977 to 1980, and worked some for the APA. The latter was quite unpopular with some people, esp during the development frenzy leading up to the Winter Olympics.

MR

 

[Adk_dib]

I was tired of listening to the "Food Network" for 15 minutes. I can grow carrots in my back yard for gods sake. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.

 

[Raymond]

Bob and George Marshall were teenagers when they came up with the idea of climbing all the 4000-foot peaks in the Adirondacks. They defined what constituted a qualifying mountain (not just 4000 feet elevation, but either a) at least a 300-foot rise from the low point between a 4000-foot mountain and a higher peak or b) at least three-quarters of a mile distance between the 4000-foot mountain and a higher peak. Herbert Clark was their guide.

Originally, they found 42 peaks that met their criteria. After they had climbed all 42, Russell Carson wrote to tell them that there were four other peaks that qualified. I think the extra four were Gray, Cliff, Blake and Emmons, but I may be wrong. Definitely Emmons, because that was their 46th. They all overlooked a second peak of Tabletop which met the criteria, and some of the original 46 were later discovered to not meet the criteria, but the original list was not changed because....

The Forty-Sixers were formed to recognize the feat of climbing the same peaks as the original three; the Marshall brothers and Clark were assigned their numbers alphabetically, rather than by the order in which they completed the 46th climb.

Bob was relatively famous, that's probably why he was mentioned on the program. For one thing, he was a co-founder of The Wilderness Society. He died on a train en route to Washington, D.C. He was to have to testified before Congress about an area he wanted to protect as wilderness, I think. He has a huge wilderness area named after him in Montana, and many of the names he bestowed on features live on (like Gates of the Arctic, in Alaska). It is ironic that he liked to say he reveled in visiting the blank spaces on the map, but he also liked to start naming things (thus filling in the map) once he got there.

George was less famous, but much longer lived. He died not long ago; 93 years old, if memory serves.

 

[Jay H]

Nice post Raymond, may clear up why Bob (Robert?) marshall is #3, behind George Marshall and Herb Clark...

P.S. The PBS show is on this thursday, may 22nd at 9pm on WNET for those in NYC who may have missed the show last week (or don't get) WLIW out of Long Island.


Jay

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Excellent post, Raymond. The Marshall brother's original plan was to climb the peaks that were over 4000'. They had considered using a 3500' criteria, but that produced too many peaks. They completed their list of 42 peaks in 1921. Bob wrote a 1922 article for the ADK club's publication documenting the accomplishment.

After politicking by Russell Carson the list grew to 46. The 4 peaks added were the 4900' Gray Peak and the three peaks that just had a 4000' contour (Blake, Cliff, and Couchsachraga). The Marshalls had correctly observed that Gray Peak did not qualify (a mere 60' rise and 0.6 mile distance from Marcy on the 1895 USGS map). Russell Carson convinced them to add Gray because it was named after the prominent Harvard natural history professor Asa Gray.

The Marshall brothers and Herb Clark completed the additional 4 peaks on Couchsachraga in 1924. However, while reviewing the maps again during the winter of 1924 they became doubtful that they had reached Emmons. They believed they may have been confused by the several false peaks along the ridge during their 1921 Seward range climb. They finally climbed Emmons on June 10, 1925. They were now certain they had not reached it in 1921. And that explains why they became 46ers (per the Adirondack 46er roster) on one of the peaks from their original 42 peak list.

The Marshalls also had several other rules for their Adirondack 4000' climbs (per the "Story of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers" written Grace Hudowalski and Orville Gowie for the 1970 edition of the 46er book). The 46ers still advocate these as well:

• Records must be kept.
• Each member of the party would cast a secret ballot rating the beauty of each mountain.
• The party must stick together.

The last rule was the reason for their simultaneous completion of the 46. That in turn led to the 46er practice of assigning climbing numbers alphabetically for groups that finished together.

It raised my eyebrow when they mentioned him doing 12 in one day. They did not specify if it was during his first time through or not. 12 in one day without trails would be astonishing. Maybe he did the 12 in one day later on after some trails had been established. Either way it is an amazing feat. It had to have been so much harder back then without the gear we all enjoy today.

Bob Marshall's description of his July 15, 1932; 14 Adirondack peak hike (including Mt Jo) can be read on the Cave Dog Team website.

Thanks for the program reminder, Jay. I am planning to watch the show again when it plays on WNET this Thursday.

 

[Raymond]

Thanks, Jay.

It was all off the top of my head, but I think it’s pretty accurate. (Oopsie. I didn’t see Mark’s post following Jay’s before I replied, so I’ll withdraw my ‘‘pretty accurate’’ claim and rewrite the next paragraph to keep the record clear.)

That long multi-peak hike Bob did is also described on a paper hanging on the wall at Johns Brook Lodge.

There’s a book out with a lot of Bob’s writings, too. We saw it at The Mountaineer last year, but unfortunately I didn’t buy it. (Edited by one of our own, I believe.)