Who’s counting? Forest ranger adds to more than 1,000 peaks climbed

Corenne Black has hiked more than 1,000 peaks around the world and still has a lengthy to-do list.

By Tim Rowland

In early April, Corenne Black paused to admire a drop-dead gorgeous view on a mountain in the Pharoah Lake Wilderness that few have ever heard of and fewer will ever see. It never gets old, even though she recently summited her 1,000th peak, a portfolio climbed in the Adirondacks and around the world. This little knob was No. 1,005.
Was it special? They all are.
Black, a ranger for the New York Department of Conservation, has no intention of stopping now, and with her husband, outdoors writer and bushwhacking savant Spencer Morrissey, she has a lengthy to-do list, from lesser known mountains in Vermont to storied peaks overseas to hitting the high point in all 50 states.

Forest Ranger Corenne Black with husband Spencer Morrissey hiking Blue Hill in the Pharoah Lake Wilderness. Photo by Tim Rowland

Here in the Adirondacks most of us know of the 46 High Peaks and maybe a few dozen more that have come to our attention by way of trails and the familiar brown and yellow DEC signs. But there are literally hundreds out there that are worth climbing.

“There’s always something new,” said Black, who has been hiking for about 27 years now. “From the maps, you never quite know what you’re going to come across.” It could be some murderous blowdown on a bushwhack up the back side of Esther, an ancient crosscut saw grown into a tree at Moose River Plains, or even something as subtle as a smell, or a curious little pocket of vegetation.

“It’s the physical challenge, but it’s also a stress reliever,” Black said of climbing’s appeal.

On this day there was a little of both as we signed in at the Short Swing trailhead west of Schroon Lake for a scoot up a little mountain with a name, Blue Hill, so bland that few would ever suspect the glories awaiting up top.

So it was highly weird when, signing in, Morrissey saw that the only other visitor that day was also hiking Blue Hill. “That never happens,” he said. Indeed, it might be fair to assume that in its Forest Preserve history this was the first time Blue Hill had been summited by two different parties.

The Pharoah Lake Wilderness is beloved by its fans but largely overlooked by the public due to a west-of-the-Northway hiking bias. But great hiking exists in this 46,000-acre expanse tucked between Schroon Lake and Lake Champlain. At a little over 1,600 feet, Blue Hill would involve minimal huffing and puffing and afford a chance to talk with Black about what it’s like to have summited 1,000 peaks. (No. 1,000 occurring earlier this year on Mt. Pilaar in Curacao.)

She began climbing while on an internship in Oregon, bagging Mt. Hood and some others in the neighborhood. Back east, as her career interests turned from anthropology to environmental science, she just kept climbing, not really keeping track of the number. But Morrissey is a numbers guy, who kept an eagle eye on her total.

“She was surprised when I told her how close (to 1,000) she was,” he said.

We stayed on the DEC trail for a mile — some of it was pretty wet, but hiking with a ranger involves an admitted degree of self-consciousness, as I found myself aggressively walking through the mud instead of sidestepping it, as well as refraining from stepping on rotten logs and a lot of other stupid stuff I do when alone. Just after reaching a beaver pond, we hung a 90-degree left turn and started ascending up a pretty stiff pitch.

This is where the fun and games stop,” Morrissey said. “From here on it’s just games.”

Ranger Corenne Black has hiked 1,005 peaks in the Adirondacks and around the globe. Photo by Tim Rowland

And indeed, route finding off-trail is a game of sorts. Black and Morrissey navigated with quiet teamwork, using a gesture, a quick word or the pointing of a hiking pole to select the way.

Morrissey has some 2,300 mountains to his credit; I asked if he had kept track of the mileage and he said he hadn’t, but I could tell he sort of wished he had.

Because of varied work schedules, the two of them have four days a month in which to climb, and the weather isn’t always charitable about respecting this constraint.

Of her 1,000-plus peaks, 680 have been bagged in the Adirondacks. There is no minimum height requirement for them — if something’s worth climbing, it’s worth being considered a mountain. And “Spencer knows all these little gems,” Black said.

Trying to sneak a view past Morrissey is like trying to sneak dawn past a rooster. With a keen eye for mapping and satellite imagery he has a nose for overlooks, and even if the images aren’t positive he and Black will hike the mountain anyway, because until you’ve been there you never know.  

After a short but spirited two-tenths of a mile climb it was apparent Blue Hill was one of these gems. The first of several lookouts featured a beaver pond directly below and Paradox Lake in the distance backed up by the broad range capped by Hoffman Mountain. 

One more fairly easy little scramble led to the summit, with some views of Pharoah Mountain to the south of us. For variety, we took a different route down, sliding through chutes in the cliffs and talking about future hiking plans.

Black said they’re looking to do some glacier training on Mt. Rainier in Washington State and eventually tackling Denali. Other bucket-list items include the peaks of South America and Africa’s Kilimanjaro. 

“That keeps it fresh,” Black said of international climbing, where cultural differences — from food to attitudes about hiking and recreation — are always interesting. But those massifs conquered, there will always be more Blue Hills awaiting back home.