Mount Marshall

Nestled in the heart of the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness is Mount Marshall. Lacking the iconic views of neighboring high peaks, Mount Marshall is legendary in its own right. Standing approximately .9 miles straight line distance from its closest high peak neighbor, Iroquois Peak, Mount Marshall looms in relative isolation. In the winter, it is a decidedly rugged destination, scarred only by unmarked herd paths and a worn wood summit marker.

Such ruggedness befits the spirit of Mount Marshall’s namesake. The mountain is named for legendary 46er, adventurer, and conservationist Robert “Bob” Marshall.

Robert “Bob” Marshall

Bob Marshall’s feats are numerous. He and his friends became the first individuals to hike and record all 46 of New York’s 4k high peaks (4,000’ +). He was one of the first students of New State’s College of Forestry, which eventually became SUNY Environmental, Science and Forestry (ESF) and the NYS Forest Ranger School. Louis Marshall, Bob’s father, was one of the original proprietors of the NYS College of Forestry and New York’s “forever wild” model of conservation. Louis contributed to the creation of the Adirondack Preserve that evolved into the Adirondack Park.

Bob Marshall went on to become a staunch advocate for conservation, modern forestry practices, and the preservation of roadless wilderness areas. We have Marshall to thank for many vast tracts of protected wilderness areas that we still fight to conserve today.

He was a foundational figure in the U.S. Forest Service and at the forefront of the early 20th Century conservationist movement. Bob Marshall’s adventurous spirit took him to Alaska’s Brooks Range. There he recorded numerous treks into pristine wilderness, famously naming the “Gates of the Arctic” and exploring areas near today’s Gates of the Arctic National Park.

Hiking the High Peaks

Hiking the Adirondack High Peaks one cannot help but appreciate the doggedness of Marshall and his companions. They are legendary not only for their physical accomplishments but for their conservation foresight.

I am reminded of the superiority of nature whilst hiking the Adirondack High Peaks in winter. Austerity does not know state or national boundaries. The unpredictable post holes of an Adirondack spruce forest can bury a hiker as impartially as an Alaskan snow-swept landscape. Hypothermia can take life in the tundra or in the desert. Experience in the wilderness should cultivate humility not hubris.

As you step onto a fresh snow covered trail, you can barely discern the path ahead. The brook slows to a murky glass. The spruce boughs lay blanketed by a velvet of white. The trail before you is trackless and yet it is well trodden. You think of the adventurers before; Bob Marshall, George Marshall, Clark, Grace, and the nameless. The path ahead is clear.

References and Resources

• 
  Glover, James M. A Wilderness Original: The Life of Bob Marshall. Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1986.
• 
  Lance, Suzanne, and Tim Tefft, et al. Heaven Up-h’isted-ness! The History of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers and the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. Cadyville, NY: Adirondack Forty-Sixers, 2011.
• ADK 46er
• ADK Mountain Club
• SUNY ESF