Photo provided.
Mountain Day has been a tradition at Northwood School for many years. It is a day once a year when every student is assigned to hike one of the 46 high peaks from around the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park. Students have no classes, practices, or workouts, just a day of hiking. For many students, it is their first time hiking a peak, and it will be an experience they remember for the rest of their lives.
Nurse Margaret Maher and Bobby O’Connor, the head of the Northwood Adventure Sports Program organized this day. These two have worked for weeks to make sure this day went smoothly. Ms. Maher said, “Bobby and I met every day of the last week trying to plan,” she added that he was in her office for 3 hours at one point as they worked to put groups together.
Students are put into groups with around 10 total students and 2 faculty as their guides. Some of the peaks that were summited this year include Whiteface Mountain, Mount Marcy, Mount Colden, Algonquin Peak, and many more. These hikes take about 6-8 hours on average and usually require at least 10 miles of hiking and reaching an elevation of at least 4,000 feet.
Ms. Maher also said that one of the goals of Mountain Day is to continue the tradition, but she also said there are bigger reasons behind why Northwood continues to do this. “We want to expose kids to the outdoors who don’t normally get the chance to do that activity because of their sport or maybe where they are from,” Nurse Marge said. The biggest goal of this day, though, is to build and strengthen the community at Northwood. When making the groups, Mr. O’Connor and Ms. Maher made sure to put lots of thought into it. Every group was unique, with kids from all different sports, different areas of the world, and different backgrounds. Climbing up 4,000 feet of elevation is a good time to bond with the kids you may not talk to every day at school.
For many kids, it was their first time completing a hike and observing the nature of the Adirondack Park. Anton Stackow mentioned that it was a great experience for him and something he thinks everyone needs to try at some point in their life. He also said he built relationships with new people and feels much closer to the community at Northwood because of Mountain Day.
All photos provided by group leaders or members.
