By Joshua Calhoun

July 1, 2002 Most hikers take years to become Adirondack 46ers; Ted Keizer, better known amongst his friends as Cave Dog, took just under four days to accomplish the feat.

Three days, 18 hours, and 14 minutes after setting off into the Adirondacks, Cave Dog, a 30-year old outdoor enthusiast who also holds the ten-day speed record for climbing Colorado's 55 14,000-meter peaks (see "Trail Hound" Outside magazine July 2002), dove for the Whiteface Mountain summit marker last Thursday, clinching bragging rights as the fastest 46er ever, and beating the previous 1977 record—four days, 18 hours, and 18 minutes—by more than a day.

"It's immensely rewarding to work so long and hard on a project that seems almost insurmountable at the beginning and then to have it go so well is just incredible," proclaimed Cave Dog after a much-deserved massage.

The Adirondack High Peaks Region, in the heart of the massive Adirondack Park of Northeastern New York (a protected area larger than Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks combined), counts 46 of its hundreds of summits as "High Peaks." Those who reach the summits, traditionally considered to top out at 4,000 feet or higher, gain the honor of being called a 46er, and the right to sew the distinguishing patch onto their pack.

Nearly half of the trails in the High Peaks Region fall into the category of unmarked trails: scaling peaks means finding and following sometimes-visible herd trails that require bushwhacking and orienteering. Add this to the renowned technicality of the root- and rock-filled trails that are marked and throw in two days of spring lightning storms, and Cave Dog faced a gargantuan challenge in upstate New York.

"There was mud all along the way, but the last two days it got to be a swamp. The trail on Ester [Cave Dog's 45th peak] was legendary. At one point my left leg was sunk to mid-calf and the mud on my right leg was just below the knee. I would reach down and pry my leg up and put it down, and it would sink to the knee again."

But Cave Dog pushed on, forcing his body to move on 15 minutes of sleep per day, until he summited 4,867-foot Whiteface Mountain, fifth highest summit in the Adirondacks at 10:29 P.M. on Thursday, June 27th, after trekking over 140 miles and climbing 140,000 vertical feet of Adirondack wilderness. His support group of sixteen friends and family members, aptly dubbed "The Dog Team," set up provision stops for Cave Dog along the way, coordinated shuttles between mountain ranges, and tracked his progress on their Web site (www.thedogteam.com).

"I learned a lot in the challenge itself as well as in the entire process of thirteen months of scouting. You learn about society, people, nature, yourself...in the challenge itself I learned more about sleep deprivation—competing 24 hours a day on a day after day basis. It was much different, much harder on the body than the Colorado experience," said Cave Dog.

With this quest behind him, the 1994 Brown University graduate and student body president plans to return to his car and continue life as a self-titled bum ("I'm a bum because I live by my own terms," says Cave Dog). Think of Chris McCandless, subject of Jon Krakauer's 1993 article for Outside and subsequent book, Into the Wild minus the misanthropic edge. "He was different," explained Cave Dog, "he was running from society because he was dissatisfied with his own life. He burned his money and shunned technology to get away from society. I love society. I love technology. I'm running to it, not away from it."

As for his next record, Cave Dog, plans to take a few weeks of much needed R&R before setting his sights. "I've thought about challenging the Catskills thirty-five record (thirty-five peaks over 3500 feet) of four days, ten hours, 24 minutes...that's still just a maybe, my body has to recover before I can make that decision."