KEENE VALLEY – Following a seven-hour round-trip hike up Mount Marcy, the U.S. women’s speed record holder for Mount Everest was happy to have a slice of pie at the Noonmark Diner, just like everyone else.

“It’s fun to eat at places like that with so much history,” Melissa Arnot said.

Arnot and guide-in-training Maddie Miller are making their way around the country, climbing to the highest point in each of the 50 states.

Arnot, a world-class climber and guide, said the Adirondacks are a great training ground for the bigger mountains of the world.

“The terrain really surprised me in how varied it was. Mount Marcy doesn’t know I climbed Everest and so the experience is new and interesting as well as challenging,” she wrote via email this week. “A really fun training ground for sure!”

She said the rock scrambling at the top was one of their favorite parts of the hike. Arnot and Miller took the Van Hoevenberg Trail to the state’s highest point on July 11. Marcy was the 24th highest point the pair had reached.

Their quest began almost a month ago with a climb up Alaska’s Denali. Since then the pair has completed 41 of the high points, but is now out west taking on some of the bigger mountains as part of the Eddie Bauer 50 Peaks Challenge. Arnot and Miller have traveled more than 11,000 miles and hiked about 170 with nearly 52,000 feet of elevation gain.

The public can follow Arnot and Miller’s progress on the challenge by finding them on Facebook, Instagram or the Eddie Bauer website.

Arnot, who started guiding on Mount Ranier at the ripe old age of 21, said this trip is about sharing her knowledge and encouraging others to get out and find adventure.

“This is all about mentorship for me, and teaching the younger generation all I have learned in the mountains,” she said. “Maddie and I hope to show people that adventure can be found no matter where you live.”

Arnot hasn’t started planning her next big expedition yet, saying, “I’m going to sleep for about a week and then start planning that.”

The pair were unable to spend much time in the Tri-Lakes since the challenge has a time limit associated with it. The day after climbing Marcy, they were on the summit of Mount Mansfield in Vermont, but Arnot said she wouldn’t mind coming back to the Adirondacks in the future.

“I would love to spend some more time there and do some longer hikes,” she said.

Arnot hails from Montana, and her favorite high point so far was in her home state. Nevertheless, she said she enjoyed the Adirondacks immensely.

“We loved Mount Marcy! It was a nice long hike with such fun rocky scrambling on top.

“This was my first time in the ‘dacks,’ though I have always wanted to visit,” she said. “They are so amazing! The trails were beautiful and the relief of the mountains makes them feel as big as peaks out west.”