Adirondack Sports June 2023

JUNE 2023 13
COMMUNITY
Adirondack 46er
■ WITH SON GERHARD
BOSMAN, FINISHING
WRIGHT, ALGONQUIN
AND IROQUOIS IN
OCTOBER 2007.
Honored to Get Them All Done
■ WITH FRIENDS
MICHELLE ROSOWSKY
AND LINDA FEIST ON
MARCY, JULY 2019.
■ WITH HUSBAND JOHAN BOSMAN,
FINISHING GOTHICS, ARMSTRONG,
■ ON THE CARRY
UPPER AND LOWER WOLFJAW,
BETWEEN SLANG
AUGUST 2020.
AND LONG PONDS.
■ WITH FRIEND KATHY KEMP
REACHING COUCHSACHRAGA,
FINISHING THE SANTANONI
RANGE, AUGUST 2022.
■ REACHING PEAK #46
ON AUGUST 20, 2022.
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-foryou
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).