Mount Marcy, the highest point in New York and the Adirondacks, rises above vast forest into an exposed alpine summit with sweeping views across the High Peaks, Lake Champlain, and Quebec. First recorded climbed on August 5, 1837, by Ebenezer Emmons's survey party, it was named for Governor William L. Marcy, though earlier Missisquoi Abenaki names and the later popular Tahawus also became associated with it. Formed of ancient anorthosite and shaped by glaciers, it became a major nineteenth-century climbing and surveying destination, helped inspire Adirondack preservation, and later gained fame through Theodore Roosevelt's 1901 ascent and hurried descent as he was called to the presidency.