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Healing High Peaks: Tales of personal atonement atop Wright

Rob Van Avery, left, fist-bumps Adirondack Mountain Club Wilderness trip leader Tyler Socash after successfully summiting Wright Peak as part of Winterfest on Jan. 7. (Photo provided — Rob Van Avery)

What about the person behind the number?

That’s the thought that crossed my mind while driving away from the Adirondak Loj on Jan. 7 after summiting Wright Peak with six new friends, people who until six hours before were complete strangers.

Rob Van Avery was one of those strangers. Just a year before, his life had changed thanks to a couple of LL Bean Christmas gift cards, plastic money he initially didn’t think much of.

The 39-year-old purchased an Osprey backpack with the gift. It’s a big bag that sat for nine months inside a closet at his home in Fonda, a town off Interstate 90 just south of the Adirondacks.

On Oct. 15 of last year, Van Avery was invited to hike his first High Peak, the 4,627-foot Giant Mountain. A native of Fultonville, Van Avery was innocent to the High Peaks Wilderness. He previously had only hiked just twice before, and his first trip to Lake Placid was a scant eight months prior.

Adirondack Mountain Club Wilderness trip leader Tyler Socash, left, scouts the best route to guide a group of hikers up the exposed summit of Wright Peak on Jan. 7 as part of the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Winterfest. (Photo provided — Rob Van Avery)

During that February trip, while driving home through Keene and glancing at the cars parked along state Route 73, Van Avery passed judgment on the bundled-up people digging microspikes and snowshoes into the steep trails of the icy mountains. He couldn’t comprehend the “why” behind winter hiking.

“I said,” Van Avery recalled, “‘those people are absolutely nuts.'”

Nearly one year later, and exactly three months after his first hike up Giant Mountain, Van Avery invited a friend on his most recent hike in the High Peaks. Their summiting of Nye and Street mountains completed his 12th and 13th High Peaks in 93 days.

What about the inspiration behind the number?

Enterprise reporter Antonio Olivero stands beside a cairn above treeline near the summit of Wright Peak on Jan. 7. (Photo provided — Rob Van Avery)

I met Rob Van Avery on Jan. 7. We were a part of a group of seven people who signed up to hike the 4,580-foot Wright Peak that Saturday as part of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK’s)’s annual Winterfest.

The group convened outside the High Peaks Information Center at 8:45 a.m., with biting cold and coffee expediting conversation between complete strangers.

Along with Van Avery and me there was Christopher Willett, a father from the Buffalo area who has hiked 43 High Peaks. Willett brought his son Andrew and his son’s friend Jack, an Oakland Raiders jersey-sporting NFL fan who was about to hike his first High Peak. We were also joined by Riley Robinson, a 29-year-old who recently moved to Saratoga Springs and a friend of our guide for the day, Tyler Socash.

For Socash, guiding the group up Wright Peak was a neat experience as he is typically tasked with guiding “trail-less” mountains as an ADK wilderness trip leader. To boot, the 30-year-old native of Old Forge was called in at the last minute for Winterfest after a different guide had fallen ill.

Socash’s hiking resume is dense and detailed: He’s a multi-time summer and winter 46er and a through-hiker of the 2,184-mile Appalachian Trail, the 2,654-mile Pacific Crest Trail and the 1,850-mile Te Araroa trail in New Zealand.

From left, Riley Robinson, Christopher Willett, his son Andrew, his son’s friend Jack, Adirondack Wilderness trip leader Tyler Socash and Rob Van Avery chat on the summit of Wright Peak on Jan. 7, with Algonquin Peak in view behind them. (Enterprise photo — Antonio Olivero)

On this subzero Saturday, Socash not only would shepherd our motley crew of strangers through a deceptively treacherous 7-mile day, but he would help us to befriend one another as well — which was, to me, one of the more striking elements of our hike.

Of the seven people who hiked that day, each of us had a similar narrative as to why they were there: to escape.

For Willett, it was an opportunity to set aside the stresses of everyday life and let his mind relax and wander while sharing in the experience with his son.

For Robinson, it was to remind himself that a place as remote as the High Peaks exists this close to him.

And for Van Avery, the father who didn’t comprehend the allure of winter hiking less than a year prior, it was about fueling himself with something healthy to stay sober.

This dog and hiker turned back at the krummholz of Wright Peak due to icy conditions above treeline on Jan. 7. (Enterprise photo — Antonio Olivero)

That’s the power of the Adirondack wilderness, especially in the winter: It’s about the ability to learn the life stories of strangers after meeting them just six hours prior. It’s about the potential to capture personally dignifying moments at the end of your camera’s lens while smiling through frozen-stiff beards.

It’s about, quite simply, the power of finding sympathy and kinship when you’re out there to escape.

Van Avery was the most candid about why he was there at that moment Saturday morning, willing to drive the 143 dark miles to sink his MSR snowshoes into the frosted trails yet again.

To many Adirondackers, Van Avery is one of “those” hikers. He’s a “weekend warrior” from outside the region who recently fell in love with the High Peaks, binge-hiking the 46 highest mountains in the Adirondacks as fast as he can. He and others like him accelerate the degradation of trails one insolent step at a time.

He checks all the boxes: He’s hiked double-digit mountains in mere weeks. He posts dozens of his photos on the Aspiring Adirondack 46er Facebook page after returning home. He likes and comments on many hiking-related Facebook posts during the week between his Adirondack jaunts.

Tyler Socash leads a group of six hikers through the steep krummholz of Wright Peak on Jan. 7. (Enterprise photo — Antonio Olivero)

To many longtime Adirondackers, he’s just a number, a new digit among the more than 10,000 46ers and the more than 10,000 members of the Aspiring Adirondack 46ers Facebook page. He is the new wave trampling all over the High Peaks and exploiting their natural beauty one social media share at a time.

But I ask these critics, what about the journey behind the number?

What about the journey behind Rob Van Avery?

You’d be hard-pressed to find a single person above treeline who doesn’t have a spirited reason to be there. And Van Avery’s cause may have been the greatest of our group of seven people who shared snowshoes and spikes, shared their bodies to ensure safety while scaling a dangerously slick Wright Peak.

While hiking alongside him, he shared his story of how he quit drinking and smoking 11 years ago. Like anyone who has worked to overcome a demon, Van Avery knew the exact date he made that decision: Oct. 19.

He caved in late September during a time when he was coping with evolving relationships and sending his son off to college. His setback was tough to swallow, and the changes he was staring at as a single parent humbled him to his core.

So he grabbed that Osprey backpack out of his closet and bought hiking boots.

“The silence, the views, the fresh, crisp air and the alone time with countless steps had me realizing, ‘This is a new start, a journey to be sober and happy,'” Van Avery said.

With his children growing older, Van Avery said he’s committed to “finding the Rob I once knew.

“Other than just ‘Dad,'” Van Avery said. “The Rob who loved everything and everyone. This is a start to a new beginning … and I’m thankful for the Adirondacks for being an amazing place to kick off this journey of what lies ahead.”

What about the soul behind the number?

Van Avery is all in on the Adirondacks. Since summiting Wright Peak, he returned the two weekends since to hike Algonquin Peak and Street and Nye mountains. He has his sights set on living in Lake Placid within the next two years. And, he says, the Adirondacks have inspired him to take a few college courses in environmental conservation.

There you have it: Rob Van Avery — the story behind the number.

“It’s never too late to start over,” he said.

“And if you’re reading this,” he added, “please get out and live!”

From left, Rob Van Avery, Christopher Willett, his son’s friend Jack, Riley Robinson, Adirondack Wilderness Trip Leader Tyler Socash and Willett’s son Andrew stop while descending the summit of Wright Peak on Jan. 7. (Enterprise photo — Antonio Olivero)

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