Video clip from The Mountains Will Wait for You, directed by Fred Schwoebel. 2013. Used with permission.

Since 1925, over 9,000 people have climbed all 46 Adirondack High Peaks and earned membership in the Adirondack Forty-Sixers club. In 1937, Grace Hudowalski became the ninth hiker—and first woman—to accomplish this feat. Grace dedicated her life to the Adirondacks, and served as the Forty-Sixers’ historian for decades. As hikers progressed towards their goals of finishing the 46, each one corresponded with Grace in writing to report their climbs until she passed away in 2004. Ten years later, the United States Board on Geographic Names passed a petition assembled by a group of Forty-Sixers to commemorate Grace’s accomplishments and devotion to the peaks and recognized the renaming of East Dix to Grace Peak. Grace’s story is just one of many about the people who have explored and loved the Adirondacks—stories that have shaped the experiences of the countless people who have followed in their pioneering footsteps.