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Jun 30, 2023

Sitting down with Lisa Feinberg Ballard

Aug 31, 2023 Lisa Feinberg Ballard is seen on the summit of Whiteface Mountain.(Provided photo) In yesterday’s edition, I discussed the new edition of Saranac Lake native Lisa Feinberg Ballard’s

Aug 31, 2023

Lisa Feinberg Ballard is seen on the summit of Whiteface Mountain.(Provided photo)

In yesterday’s edition, I discussed the new edition of Saranac Lake native Lisa Feinberg Ballard’s guidebook “Hiking the Adirondacks.” I recently caught up (electronically) with Ballard at her family’s summer place on Lower Chateaugay Lake, and asked her about her Adirondack roots, her career as a writer, and related topics. This interview has been minimally edited for length and clarity.

Q: Tell us a bit about your roots in the Adirondacks and Saranac Lake. What attracted you to outdoor athletics and recreation?

BALLARD: My great-grandfather, David Cohen, was one of the first European settlers in the Adirondacks, along with his brother, Moses Cohen. They were peddlers in the late 1800s, then set up general stores, which became hardware stores in Old Forge (Moses) and Bloomingdale (David) as the railroads came through. David’s horse-drawn peddler’s cart is in the collection at the Adirondack Experience museum in Blue Mountain Lake. Along that branch of my family tree, I’m the fourth generation to have lived in Saranac Lake, and the third to have been born there.

I grew up on the ski slopes of Whiteface, Pisgah and other small ski areas that no longer exist around the Tri-Lakes, and followed a lifelong trail into high-level ski racing. I started hiking as a teenager. Several local friends were chasing their 46er badges, so I tagged along for the workout. On the Dartmouth College ski team, I continued to run up 4,000-footers all over New England as part of fall training, and before I knew it, I was as much a hiker as a ski racer. Friends got me into hiking, ski racing kept me in it, and since then I’ve continued, avidly, trekking all over the world.

Q: You live now in Montana, in the Beartooth Mountains near Yellowstone National Park. What took you there, and what is it about the Adirondacks that inspires you to return every summer?

BALLARD: I married a Montanan, Jack Ballard, also a writer and photographer. However, my family still lives in Saranac Lake. I’m lucky to split my time between two beautiful settings, but our camp here is my happy place. I treasure being on the water, where I can paddle my SUP most mornings and listen to the loons. Ironically, this summer we got a taste of [Montana-like] wildfire smoke, plus a flash flood. Mother Nature is unhappy. We need to fix that. “Hiking the Adirondacks” is not just a guidebook; it’s eye candy from trails all over the park. Maybe if people see the book, even if they’re not hikers, they’ll come to value what we’ve got here and want to protect it.

Q: Why do you write, in particular why guidebooks, and what else do you write? Your book is part of the Falcon Guides series; how did you connect with that?

BALLARD: I never intended to write guidebooks. I retired from professional ski racing in 1991 and began commentating for ESPN and other television networks. I started writing magazine articles, at first about skiing to fill in the gaps around TV gigs. Over the next 20 years, as my career segued into much broader coverage of sports, adventure travel, conservation and outdoor recreation, my writing did, too. Since moving to Montana in 2011, writing and photography, along with directing masters race camps and women’s ski clinics, have become the cornerstones of my professional life. I contribute to 25 magazines and websites, including Adirondack Life, Adirondack Explorer, Appalachia, RV Magazine, Outdoors.com, Colorado Outdoors and Wyoming Wildlife.

I got the opportunity to write my first guidebook, “Best Hikes with Dogs: New Hampshire and Vermont,” published by The Mountaineers Books in 2005, when I met the originator of that series on a winter camping trip in Colorado. I was living in New Hampshire at the time. That book was immediately popular. A year later, I met Bill Schneider, who started Falcon Guides, at the annual conference of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He asked me to write “Hiking the Adirondacks” as part of a four-guidebook deal that also covered the Green and White Mountains plus “Best Easy Day Hikes Adirondacks.” What an opportunity to hike and photograph wild places! Luckily, Lowa, a hiking boot company, supplies me with footwear — I’ve hiked thousands of miles just working on these books, and with each new edition I’ve re-hiked all of the trails plus some new ones.

“Hiking the Adirondacks, 3rd Edition” is my 10th guidebook, with the manuscript for “Best Easy Day Hikes Adirondacks, 3rd Edition,” number 11, to be released in spring 2024. Basically, I love to stand on top of mountains, spend time with family and friends on the trail, and help others hike safely and be good stewards of our backcountry.

Q: You’ve said your guidebook complements others out there. In what ways?

BALLARD: The Adirondack Mountain Club’s guidebooks are the most complete, thorough guides to trails throughout the Adirondack Park. “Hiking the Adirondacks” helps hikers figure out where to go among the many, many routes in the ADK guides. It simplifies the options by recommending specific hikes in all parts of the park. I also include hikes for a variety of ability levels, first-timers to experts. There are also several color photos per hike, to give a preview of what each hike is like.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to add?

BALLARD: I feel so fortunate to have grown up in Saranac Lake with the Adirondack Park as my backyard. I didn’t realize as a kid how special the Adirondacks are, but now I treasure the enormous backcountry and majestic mountains. How fortunate for me to have the opportunity to “guide” others to these mountaintops through my books!

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