MOUNT MARCY

Elevation:

Feet: 5344
Meters: 1629

Rank:

Mount Marcy is the tallest of the Adirondack 46 High Peaks.
Mount Marcy is the tallest mountain in the Adirondacks.

Location:

Latitude: 44.112554 N
Longitude: 73.923476 W

Trail:

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History:

Namesake: Mount Marcy was named in 1837 after William Learned Marcy (1786-1857), former New York State governor (1833-1838), U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and U.S. Secretary of War. During his time as governor he authorized the geological survey that would explore this area and whose members made the first recorded ascent. Emmons and company named the mountain in his honor on their first ascent. It is a common misconception that local Native Americans referred to the mountain before the arrival of the white man as "Tawahus" meaning "cloudsplitte". However it was really author/poet Charles Feno Hoffman who first used the word with respect to Mount Marcy and it was not until 1837, weeks after the first recorded ascent and naming of the mountain. In 1919, there was also an unsuccessful movement to rename the mountain, "Victory Peak". Additionally Orson "Old Mountain" Phelps affectionately referred to Mount Marcy as "[Mount] Mercy", a pet name many who frequent the High Peaks Wilderness still use.

Mount Marcy Timeline

1837: On August 5th, 1837. Ebenezer Emmons, William C. Redfield, David Henderson, James Hall, Messrs. C.C. Ingham of New York, Messr. Miller of Princeton, Professor Torrey, Ebeneezer Emmons Jr., Harvey Holt, and John Cheney, and three other unknown guides made the first recorded ascent of Mount Marcy. Emmons reports Marcy to be over 5000 feet tall.

1837: The original ascent party led by Ebeneezer Emmons agrees to name the mountain, Mount Marcy in honor of governor Marcy who authorized the survey during which the first ascent was made. Later that year, author/poet Charles Feno Hoffman uses the Native American "Tawahus" meaning "cloud-splitter" to describe Marcy, leading to misconception over name commonly held even today.

1839: Edwin F. Johnson, a civil engineer for the Ogdenburgh and Champlain roadway measured the height of Mount Marcy from Lake Champlain by triangulation, finding it to be 4907 feet tall. A published disagreement between Johnson and Emmons ensued over the actual height of Marcy and the methods used to record said height.
- E.F. Johnson. "Mountains in New York". The American Journal of Science. July 1839.

1839: On August 14, 1839, Farrand N. Benedict, geologist and a University of Vermont professor, took ten barometric readings of the height of Mount Marcy from the summit with George McRae and John Cheney. They found the height of Mount Marcy to be 5344 feet.
- Assembly Document No. 50. Jan 24 1840.

1847: On October 18th, 1847, the Tahawian Association, presided over by Archibald McIntyre approved the construction of foot trail from North Elba to Wilmington, up the summits of both Mount Marcy and Whiteface Mountain. This trail, would later be a prime attraction for adventurers in the mid to late 1800s.

1849: In August of 1849 Orson "Old Mountain" Phelps, 32, makes the first ascent of Mount Marcy from the east guiding Almeron Oliver and George Estey of Schroon (NY) to the summit. This may have been the first, if not one of the first ascents Orson Phelps, himself, made to the summit of Mount Marcy.

1853: In September of 1853 T. Addison Richard and party hike Marcy from Opalescent, summitting Mount Marcy. This is significant because one member of the party, a woman named Marianne, may well have been first woman to climb and possibly, to summit Mount Marcy.

1857: Orson "Old Mountain" Phelps is said to have blazed the first route to Mount Marcy from John Brook's Lodge and guided artist Frederick J. Perkins to the summit where they are said to have named Mount Skylight, Basin Mountain, Saddleback Mountain, and first named Lake Tear of the Clouds - "Lake Perkins".
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1858: Mary Cook and Fannie Newton climb Mount Marcy from the East, becoming the first two women to have well documentedly climbed to the summit of Mount Marcy. However it was reported later on that a woman, possibly Marianne of Richard's party 5 years earlier, had indeed summitted the mountain before.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1859: On August 14th, 1859, Alfred G. Compton and Theodore R. Davis of New York (NY) summit Mount Marcy and build a stone summit with a moss roof on the summit. On August 31, 1859, that year Benson J. and Ellen Losing climbed to the summit to Mount Marcy fom the east.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1861: Orson "Old Mountain" Phelps, 44, cuts what is eventually known as "Phelps Trail" up the mountain from the Ausable Lakes, by Haystack Mountain, through Panther Gorge, and up Mount Macy's great Slide. The same year he, Frederick Perkins, Fannie Newton, and Mary Cook built a stone hut on Mount Marcy's summit.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1871: Ed Phelps and Seth Dribble cut John Brooks Trail, paid by their employer Norman Dribble, keeper of Keene Valley Hotel. At the time of its construction, it is the shortest route up the mountain. The trail persists, but falls out of use at end of the decade due likely to hurricane blowdown.
- Walter Lowne. "Marcy Reminiscences". Adironcac. March - April 1956.

1872: On September 14, 1872 Verplanck Colvin and his survey party set out on an exploratory survey of Mount Marcy. The following day Colvin hammers in first bolt on Mount Marcy summit. The day after that he and William Nye explored lake between Mount Marcy and Mount Skylight, found the "summit water" (Orson Phelps' "Lake Perkins"), identifying it as Hudson River's highest source. It was later renamed "Lake Tear of the Clouds".
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1874: Verplanck Colvin and his survey team ascended Mount Marcy and by triangulation, measured the height of Mount Marcy from 222 different observation points. They measured the height of Mount Marcy to be 5402 feet. - Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1875: In October and November of 1875 Verplanck Colvin, Orson Phelps, and a survey crew cut lines of sight to the summit and using "level and rod". They measured the height of Mount Marcy to be 5,344 feet confirming Benedict's 1839 measurements.

1875: On October 25, 1875 while Verplanck Colvin and his cew were doing survey work on the upper slopes of Mount Marcy, a member of the team became lost for the better part of the day. Crews searched amd successfully located the man later that same day. This may be the first recorded search and rescue on Mount Marcy.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1877: While Verplanck Colvin and his survey crew were doing work on Mount Marcy constructing a signal tower, an explosion occurred. Melted lead flew up and hit one of the men in the face, nearly blinding him, but the man was successfully carried off the mountain alive.

1879: A young man from Rochester (VT) was camping with two companions near the summit of Mount Marcy when while trying to cut some firewood with an axe he accidentally cut off three towers. He nearly bled to death by medical students camped nearby patched him up and he was carried off the mountain alive.

1880s: Henry Van Hoevenberg and William Nye cut a tail from newly constructed Adirondack Loj to the summit of Mount Marcy. The thereafter named, "Van Hoevenberg Trail" became the shortest, albeit steepest route to the summit of Marcy, passing by Indian Falls.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1883: From September 10th to October 12th, Mills Blake, a surveyor and close friend/assistant of surveyor Verplanck Colvin, camps out on the summit of Mount Marcy as he measures the slopes of the mountain for the Adirondack Survey.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1893: On March 18th, 1893 John Wesley Otis and Benjamin Pond make the first recorded winter ascent of Mount Marcy.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1899 In February of 1899, Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and C. Grant Laflarge make the second recorded winter ascent of Mount Marcy, coincidently during the "Great Blizzard of 1899".
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1901: On September 13, 1901, U.S. Vice President Teddy Roosevelt, summitted Mount Marcy before spending the night camped out at Lake Tear of the Clouds. The next day when he was alerted that U.S. President William McKinley had been shot in Buffalo, NY. Roosevelt immediately left for Buffalo and became U.S. President.

1908: On January 14th, 1908 Laura Banfield, of Worcester (MA) became the first woman to make a winter ascent of Mount Marcy while on a snowshoe party of several members including Lewis Wells of Hyde Park (NY), one D.A. Harrington, and a man named Newell.
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1918: On August 27th, 1918, George Marshall, Bob Marshall, and Herbert Clark, the three men who were the first to climb all 46 High Peaks, made their ascent of Mount Marcy. It was only their second high peak and would wind up being their second of four that summer, and the first of three they would do over the next two days.
- Marshall, Bob, George Marshall, and Phil Brown. Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks: Writings of a Pioneering Peak-bagger, Pond-hopper and Wilderness Preservationist. Lost Pond Press. 2006.

1919: There is an unsuccessful effort to remain Mount Marcy "Victory Mountain" by the Victory Mountain Commitee of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks in honor of the American and Allied victory over the Axis Powers in the Great War (World War I).
- Weber, Sandra. Mount Marcy: High Peak of New York. Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

1937: On March 5th, 1937 over 200 hikers celebrated the centennial anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Marcy on the summit of the mountain, beginning from 5 different trails. The ceremony, radio broadcast the next day on by WGY featured the installment of two summit plaques and a speech by Department of Conservation commissioner Lithgow Osborne.
- "Marcy conquered 100 years ago".Ticonderoga Sentinel. March 5 1937.

1942: On 1942, the USGS conducts Coast and Geodetic Survey during which they stamped gold marker on summit ridge of Mount Macy and installed benchmarks elsewhere such as at Heart Lake, Marcy Dam, South Meadow, and other locations in North Elba.

1949: On January 28th, 1949, William Shettler, 22, of Mount Vernon (NY) stumbled out of the High Peak Wilderness Area and into Newcomb, after getting lost while skiing on Mount Marcy. He was "lost" for 26 hours and rangers commenced a search, but made it to a lumber camp after a night in a lean-to shelter. He was found by rangers at camp in good condition.
- "Lost skiier comes out of woods in Newcomb, area". Plattsburgh Press Republican. January 29, 1949.

1955: In 1955, the USGS performed a survey using standard (English) units [i.e. feet], identifying Mount Marcy as 5,344 feet tall making it the tallest mountain in the Adirondacks, already a well known fact to general public by this time. The 1955 survey confirmed the 19th century measurements taken by Verplanck Colvin and Farrand Benedict.

1956: On November 26, 1956, Norm Nissan became ill while near the summit of Mount Marcy while climbing with a group of Syracuse and Cornell college students. He returned to his camp and was found dead in his sleeping bag by his companions. Though not immediately determined, the stress of the ascent was deemed linked to cause of death.
- "Student dies while on Mt. Marcy climb after growing ill". Adirondack Record - Elizabethown Post. November 29, 1956.

1957: On July 7th, 1957 hiker Theodore McKerron, 75, of Salamanca (NY) collapsed on the summit of Mount Marcy after a successful ascent carrying heavy supplies. Accompanied by his teenage companions and rangers, he was carried out by stretcher to the Adirondack Loj. After a lengthy rest, he made a full recovery a few days later.

1958: On July 5th, 1958, fisherman Samuel Middleton, 70, of Saranac Lake (NY) is found by rangers after being lost for 23 hours on the various brooks on the slopes of Mount Marcy. He had spent the night in the wilderness after becoming lost while searching for his son-in-law and is found in good condition.

1968: On December 9th, 1968, hikers Richard Stepp, 23, and Stephen Clautice, 21, wandered out of the High Peaks Wildernes after having made the wrong descent off Mount Marcy. The two were lost for 36 hours and rangers searched for them until they made their way out of the woods. They were in good condition.
- "2 Penn State students survive ordeal on Marcy". Adirondack Enterprise. December 10th, 1968.

1972: On June 23rd, 1972 Chris Beattie, 26, suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed dead just below the Mount Marcy summit. He and Patrick Griffin, 31, had set out to hike all 46 High Peaks in 5 days. Beattie was unable to keep pace with Griffin and while traversing Marcy on return trip to trailhead, collapsed. Rangers later removed Beattie's remains.

1973: On March 14th, 1973 hiker George Atkinson, 20, of Chicopee (MA) goes missing. Search efforts are unsuccessful and his remains are not discovered until 1976 during the search for Steven Thomas. Atkinson's remains were discovered in Panther Gorge, where it is believed he wandered in and upon being unable to climb out, likely died of exposure.

1974: On August 25th, 1974, Hedo Belancourt, of Mexico fell while climbing Mount Marcy near Hanging Spear Falls. Injured, he had to be airlifted by rangers in a helicopter flown in from Albany, to Saranac Lake General Hospital. He was reported to be in fair condition the following day.
- "Youth's condition 'fair' after fall". Adirondack Daily Enterprise. August 26, 1974.

1976: On January 13th, 1976, John, 17, and Joe Barbera, 22, of Blauvelt (NY) were airlifted by rangers from Mount Marcy after having spent two nights lost in sub zero temperatures. The boys alerted rescuers to their location by spelling out S.O.S in pine branches and sheltered in a snowcave. They sufered from frostbite and spent days in local hospital.
- "Hikers lost two nights rescued from Mount Marcy". Adirondack Daily Enterprise. January 14, 1976.

1976: On April 12, 1976, hiker Steven Thomas, 19, of Remsen (NY) disappears from lean-to and hiking companions are unable to find him. A search commences during the next couple weeks, and despite continuing searches by relatives for years to come, he has never been found. On the search for him, the remains of George Atkinson, who had been missing for three years, is recovered.

1978: In 1978, the USGS performed a survey using metric units [i.e. meters], identifying Mount Marcy as 5,344 feet tall making it the tallest mountain in the Adirondacks,confirming measurements taken almost 140 years earlier. The 1978 survey confirmed the 19th century measurements taken by Verplanck Colvin and Farrand Benedict and the 1955 USGS standard unit survey.

1987: On January 2nd, 1987 Jennings Thomas, 60, Chris Thomas, 18, and Chris Rocco, 18, of Euclid (OH) became lost in a white-out while hiking Mount Marcy. The three were lost for three days off-trail before being rescued by rangers on the January 4th, 1987. The younger Thomas had frostbite, but otherwise the three were in fair condition.
- Landfried, Ron. "Three rescued from Marcy's icy grip". Lake Placid News. For the week of January 8th, 1987.

1989: On March 7th, 1989 two nordic skiiers, Shawn Dougher, 25, and Ralph Vecchio,29, of Stroudsburg (PA) were found by rangers in N. Ausable cabin after three nights stranded on Mount Marcy summit in a storm. Both suffered severe frosbite, legs amputated. They sued Adirondack Loj for not informing rangers they had not returned sooner.
- Thill, Mary. "Frostbite victims seek damages from club". Lake Placid News. January 8th, 1992.

1989: On October 9th, 1989, Holly McLeod, 14, of Pittsfield (MA) was airlifted off of Mount Marcy via Life Flight helicopter after dislocating her knee and spending the night near the summit with rangers. She was airlifted to a local hospital in stable condition and later released.
- Ballou, Ellen "Life flight aids in rescue". Lake Placid News. Week of October 11, 1989.

1990: On May 20, 1990, four lost hikers on , Eric Bisson, 19, of Gatineau (QB), David Poirer, 15, Sebastien Sequin, 16, and Francois Quay, 26, of Hull (QB) walked off under their own power after spending the night on the mountain. They walked down its trails to safety as a search and rescue effort was underway.
- Ballou, Ellen. "Hikers find way out" Lake Placid News. Week of May 23, 1990.

1991: On April 10, 1991, Rory Doohan, 33, of Hobart, Tasmania (Australia) died due to hypothermia after he and companion, Sharon Moore, 32, were caught in freezing rain while descending Mount Marcy a day or so earlier. Doohan's remains were removed by rangers the following day. Moore was able to descend safely to retrieve the rangers for the recovery.
- "Australian hiker dies in High Peaks Wilderness". Lake Placid News. April 17, 1991.

1992: On April 16, 1992, Eric Martel, 17, of Gatineau (QB) celebrated his birthday with a climb up Mount Marcy, but fell on a sheet of ice, slid 300 feet and off trail, breaking his leg after striking a tree. He was carried back onto the trail by his companions and was carried out by rescuers early the next morning.
- Dechant, George. "Climber breaks leg on icy slopes of Mount Marcy". Lake Placid News. For the Week of April 22, 1992.

1994: On March 29th, 1994, two boys, Bart Spedden, 18, and Burt Schiffer, 17, of PA were found by rangers after missing for two days, having gotten lost on Mount Marcy on March 27th. The two were found by rangers headed for Route 73 on foot in good condition and were driven back to the Adirondack Loj.
- Branca, Roberta "Search for lost hikers a success". Lake Placid News. March 30, 1994.

2001: On March 7th, 2001 two snowshoers, Philip Mousseau,19, of Hull (QB) and John Riche, 20, of Chelsea (QB) are found after spending a few days caught in a snowstorm on the slopes of Mount Marcy. Rangers found them in good condition and they were led out of the High Peaks after spending final night at Lake Colden Ranger Station.
-Rauch, Ned P. "Lost hikers found in high peaks".Lake Placid News. For the week March 9 - 15, 2001.