BERNE — Saturday, Aug. 20, will be a red-letter day for a young woman named Amber and a 11-year old mixed-breed dog named Ariel. A triumphant day really.

That’s the day they will summit the last of  46 Adirondack High Peaks they have climbed together.

Amber Pitcher, who lives in East Berne,  will then be able to claim membership in the Adirondack Forty-Sixers,  an organization composed of people who have stood on the summit of the 46 highest mountains in the Adirondacks.   

Ariel, who will have done the same, cannot be inducted because canines are not accepted as honorees and members. “Maybe some day they will be,” says Amber.

There’s no question that Ariel deserves high honors, not just for being a great climber but also for being a great all-around dog.

In any event, Amber may have figured the perfect way to honor Ariel’s achievement by making it count toward the saving of more rescue dogs like Ariel. Almost 10 years ago, Amber found Ariel at the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society animal shelter. She had been found by someone, wandering along the Northway in the Latham area, a scared 2-year old.

Amber was a junior at Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School at the time.

“She was still a bit wild,” Amber recalls. “She just needed someone to love her.”  It wasn’t long before Ariel settled into life on the Pitchers’  land and learned to live with another dog,  four cats, two horses, and assorted poultry. A beautiful friendship flowered between the animal-loving teenager and the outdoor-loving dog.

Now Amber is asking Ariel’s many fans — online alone, there are almost 2,700 of them following her exploits on Instagram (@ambpitch) — to salute her unofficial 46er status by sending a contribution in Ariel’s  honor to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.

Ariel has celebrity status among North Country climbers. “People on the trail  recognize and ask, ‘Is that Ariel?’”  Her photos on Instagram show her sporting a colorful bandana around her neck.  It’s a trademark of hers.

The pair started their mountain-climbing career together about four years ago, in the Catskills.

“Every mountain I have ever climbed has been with her,” Amber said. And also with Amber’s boyfriend, Matt Lounsbury,  who completes the hard-climbing trio. On the rare occasions when Ariel needs a little help — especially on a steep downward slope —  Matt carries the 50-pound dog on his shoulders. Or lowers her to Amber, in a harness.

“I wouldn’t recommend hiking with a dog you can’t carry in case you need to,” Amber says. “Her safety is our number-one priority.”

“Ariel was a natural,” says Amber, “from our very first hike. She’s never sat down and quit on a hike. She’s always happy on the trail.”

Ariel has the bright blue eye of a huskie (the other is brown), the friendly disposition of a Labrador, and the heart of a lion.

That first hike, Amber recalls, was up Indian Head Mountain in the Catskills. It was a confident start. The climb, though not long, is rated difficult. Over the next two years, gradually getting accustomed to longer hikes, Ariel and her human companions climbed the 35 Catskill peaks that are  higher than 3,500 feet. That feat qualified them to become members of the Catskill 3500 Club, Ariel included.

At the same time, they began their conquest of the Adirondacks.

How do you climb a total of  81 peaks in little more than three years, and still hold down jobs — Amber as a  veterinary technician at the Village Animal Clinic in Vorheesville and Matt as a carpenter?  You devote a lot of weekends to it and you hike through the winter too.

“Ariel loves winter climbing’ Amber says.

You also make sure your canine is well-prepared, well-equipped, and in good shape. Ariel’s humans carry two liters of water just for her, as well as a first-aid kit assembled for canine emergencies.

Amber says that Ariel trains, just as she herself does. They often run together, between climbs.

But Ariel likes nothing better, Amber says, to see the hiking gear come out.  

“She really makes it look effortless,” Amber says.

When bushwhacking is required on overgrown trails — not uncommon in the Catskills —Ariel can be a trail-finder if not trail-blazer.

“I told her once, find the trail,”  recalls Amber, “and off she went and found it.”

The highest of the 46 peaks is Mount Marcy. It’s the one the intrepid trio climbed first, of course, when they took on the the state’s northern mountains.

Their hardest day and climb?  A year ago, they bit off a big chunk of the Great Range Traverse and climbed Upper Wolf Jaw , Lower Wolf Jaw, and Haystack.  All in a day’s outing for Ariel.

A dog Ariel’s age, 11,  is no longer young.  But Ariel doesn’t know that.

And when she climbs Colden Mountain on Saturday with her humans — and with four or five of their friends who will come along to celebrate — she won’t know that she is now, unofficially, a Forty-Sixer.

“But I do think,” says Amber, “that she does know she is appreciated.”

Among those who show her their appreciation are the children at the local library where, as a trained therapy dog, she helps the kids get comfortable with reading. And with dogs.

She has all the qualities needed, Amber says, to make her both a great therapy dog and a great trail companion:  patience, calmness, and respect.

As the big day approaches, Amber says: “I’m not as impressed with myself as much as I am with Ariel.”

Mount Colden is the 11th highest peak in the Adirondacks. For Ariel, just another walk in the woods. But by no means her last.