fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Pike’s peak: Woodstock woman aims for adventure

by George Pattison
March 8, 2014
in Community
1
Jane Pike climbing Mt. Washington.
Jane Pike climbing Mt. Washington.

Storm-force winds knocked her to her knees and blood seeped from her blistered feet, but Jane Pike was happily in her element — crouched on the face of a cold New Hampshire mountain in the dead of winter, striving to climb higher.

“I loved being up there! I loved it!” wrote Pike, 46, a veteran ice and rock climber, to a bevy of friends and supporters in the aftermath of her February 22 attempt to ascend the Northeast’s highest peak, 6,288-foot Mount Washington. While the mountaineering expedition — a first for the adventurous Woodstock resident, who works as a physical trainer and serves in the local fire department — fell short of the summit, it whetted her appetite for future assaults on snowy slopes.

Pike’s email concluded: “I was grinning from ear to ear the entire hike, even as my calves were burning and my heart was pumping! If we could have stayed, I would have done it all again today! I have been dreaming about this for so long! I can’t wait to try again! I can’t wait to go for bigger mountains! I am so excited and happy!”

While she plots her next escapade, life is unlikely to get dull for Pike. With her husband, Gregory (who grew up in Woodstock but is unrelated to the noted artist John Pike), she is raising the couple’s three sons, Finnegan, 14, Ronan, 12, and Cade, 9. She serves as an emergency medical technician with Fire Company No. 5, the rescue squad, and is also a member of Zena-based Company No. 4. She is a peace officer with the fire police and is certified for low-angle rescue, ice rescue, and search-and-rescue operations.

 

Organized adventures

And then there’s the Gal Group, a network of local-area women that Pike and a friend founded in 2007. Annually, between March and September, Pike organizes six or seven participatory events, ranging from instruction in skydiving and archery to workshops on bread making and beekeeping, for subsets of the more than 300 women on the network’s email list.

“I try to pick things that get the women out of their comfort zone,” said Pike in a recent interview, noting that affordability — as well as the potential for excitement, stimulation, camaraderie, and education — guides her choices. The Gal Group typically receives a discounted group rate from an event’s vendor, yielding a per-person fee of no more than $50 (or a maximum of $100 for each year’s “big” event, such as the skydiving outing). Pike provides her organizational services free of charge.

In separate interviews, two mainstays of the Gal Group extolled Pike and the adventures that she concocts for the group. “Jane is amazing,” said Jodee Keller, a Kingston resident who has participated in hiking at Mohonk Mountain House; bread making taught by a master baker (who happens to be a physician involved in fundraising for clinics in Tibet); the beekeeping workshop; and a “couponing” class aimed at promoting savvy consumerism in the supermarket. “Jane is very well-connected. I have met some amazing people. I’m a mother of three and have found that these events are a wonderful way to meet people and do ‘adult’ things that are stimulating.”

Grace Murphy lives in Woodstock, where she serves on the volunteer Comeau Stewardship Advisory Committee. She has been a Gal Group participant since 2009. “It’s an amazing thing,” said Murphy. “There is such a variety of events: crewing on the Hudson, ziplining at Hunter, an entire day or bread making or paella cooking. Some are exciting, some are tough, and some are relaxing and instructive.”

 

Page 1 of 2
12Next
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

George Pattison

Related Posts

Mum Festival in Saugerties this Sunday
Community

Mum Festival in Saugerties this Sunday

October 3, 2025
Kingston’s StockadeFaire turns historic streets into a festival playground
Community

Kingston’s StockadeFaire turns historic streets into a festival playground

October 2, 2025
Entrepreneurial networking event in Kingston this Friday welcomes all
Community

Entrepreneurial networking event in Kingston this Friday welcomes all

October 1, 2025
How Kingston’s paramedics save lives, shake off trauma and show up for city residents 24/7
Community

How Kingston’s paramedics save lives, shake off trauma and show up for city residents 24/7

October 1, 2025
68th Elting Library Fair in New Paltz spotlights new initiatives
Community

68th Elting Library Fair in New Paltz spotlights new initiatives

September 30, 2025
Garlic Festival back on in Saugerties
Community

Garlic festival to draw big crowds to Saugerties this weekend

September 25, 2025
Next Post

A Chilean divorcée reinvents herself in Gloria

Please login to join discussion

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing