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For the 29th year in a row, the ecology class (Bio. 237) went up Whiteface Mountain to look at how and why the composition and structure of the forest changes with elevation. The 23 students on the Oct. 7 trip were led by Associate Professor of Biology Bill Pfitsch and Ernest Williams, the William R. Kenan Professor of Biology.

The 2012 46 Peaks weekend of Sept. 29-30 was a roaring success, despite the constant rain. The Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) tied its previous record of 43 peaks summited, and almost doubled participation from last year, with 125 students hiking in the Adirondacks over the weekend. “As far as our goals... it totally met that,” said Assistant Director of Outdoor Leadership Sarah Jillings. Two of the trails-less peaks were impassable, due to a washed-out bridge and high waters from the rain, which made crossing unsafe.

Over the weekend of October 1-2, the combined sections of Environmental Studies 220, The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondacks, taught by Onno Oerlemans and Robin Kinnel traveled to the Adirondack Park for some first-hand experience.

For the 28th consecutive year, the Ecology course (Bio. 237) traipsed to the top of Whiteface Mountain. This year's class was so large that it was split into two separate trips. As usual, the weather for this trip was unpredictable. The first trip took place on Sept. 25 with Prof. Bill Pfitsch and found warmth, blue skies and grand vistas. The second trip, led by Prof. Ernest Williams on Oct. 2, encountered dense overcast skies, rain and chilly temperatures.

Seven Hamilton students—trip leaders Pat Dunn ’12 and Leonard Teng ’12 along with Makenna Perry ’12, Leslie Cohen ’12, Lucas Harris ’12, Marco Scheuer ’13 and Max Lopez ’15—were part of a Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) backpacking trip last weekend that tackled two of the Adirondack High Peaks: Algonquin Peak, the second highest mountain in the state at 5,115 feet, and Iroquois Peak, the eighth highest at 4,843 feet.  

Director of Outdoor Leadership Andrew Jillings and James L. Ferguson Professor of History Maurice Isserman took the students of Adventure Writing 111 on a climb to the summit of Blue Mountain on Oct. 23. The climb was one of several field trips that the group takes together in the fall, and that the students write about for the class, in addition to more conventional academic papers.

On Oct. 8-10 members of the Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) attempted their annual goal of having at least one member of the Hamilton community atop each of the Adirondack 46 peaks. The High Peaks, in Essex and Franklin counties, are the 46 Adirondack Mountains that were traditionally believed to be higher than 4,000 feet, though surveying ultimately showed that four did not reach that height.

Over the weekend of Oct. 2-3, the College 220 class, “The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondacks,” explored several Adirondack natural sites, visited the historic John Brown’s cabin in North Elba, and took part in a seminar on paddler’s rights during an overnight visit to Camp Wenonah, owned by alumnus James Schoff, ’68.

Two Hamilton teams will compete in The Adirondack Canoe Classic, also known as “The 90-miler” this weekend, Sept. 10-12. The race is paddled over three days, starting from Old Forge and finishing in Prescott Park in Saranac Lake, and is billed as the biggest race of the year in New York State.

A book with a chapter coauthored by Hamilton faculty Ernest Williams, Patrick Reynolds and Onno Oerlemans has been published by the University of Iowa Press. The chapter, “Interdisciplinary Teaching about the Adirondacks,” appears in Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest, (edited by Pavel Cenkl, 2010).