Trailblazers Archives «

Mary Colter

June 14, 2018August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

If you’ve been to the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park, you have probably heard of, or at least recognize, the name Mary Colter. Born in 1869, she was one of very few female architects, not just in the company she worked for, but in the entire country. She is known for her love of Native American art and she made it her mission to incorporate it and the local culture into all of her designs.

Mary’s first design at the Grand Canyon, Hopi House

When Mary was 11 years old her family settled in St Paul, Minnesota. At the time, this part of the country was considered the Northwest. Here she was introduced to the Sioux people. She acquired some Sioux art from a friend which spurred her lifelong interest in Native American culture and art. When a smallpox epidemic tore through the town, Mary’s mother told her to burn anything from the Native Americans fearing that they would contract the disease. Mary didn’t give up her Sioux drawings and hid them instead. She kept those drawings for her whole life after that. She later attended art school in San Francisco and then moved back to St Paul and became an art teacher.

The Lookout Studio, blending into the canyon

She began her career at the Fred Harvey Company when she did a summer job for them decorating the Indian Building at the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque. She fell in love with the southwest and the Native American art she discovered there. She later got hired on at the company and transitioned from interior designer into lead architect over her impressive 38 years there. The Fred Harvey Company was famous for building fine restaurants and hotels along the railroads of the West. Harvey started his grand endeavor after finding disappointing food and lodging along the young continental railroads. So he teamed up with the Santa Fe Railroad to bring in fresh food and to build luxurious hotels at stops along the route.

Native American motif at Desert View Tower

Mary decorated and arranged many shops at the hotels that sold Native American goods and art. She showcased the art and rugs by laying them out like they would be in a home. She wanted to make the shops feel cozy and inviting, a place where you could relax and mingle with the artists and ask them questions. She also encouraged guests to pick up and touch the artwork which was revolutionary at the time and made her quite popular.

Desert View Tower interior with Hopi Snake Legend painting

The Hopi House in Grand Canyon National Park was her first commissioned architectural work built in 1905. She designed it to look like a pueblo built by the Hopi people. She painstakingly oversaw every detail to make sure that the building sufficiently represented the Hopi culture. She continued her quest for coziness by including two fireplaces on the main floor. The Native American artists were housed in the second level of the building while they made their art. You can still find gorgeous displays of artwork there today.

Her other works at Grand Canyon include the Lookout Studio and Hermit’s Rest, both designed to blend into the fantastic scenery and built of stone straight from the canyon. The Lookout Studio was built to compete with the nearby Kolb photography studio run by the famous Kolb brothers. Hermit’s Rest was built several miles down the rim from the Village as a place of rest after a long day’s journey. It was named for a reclusive mountain man who lived in the area and helped to build the structure.

Mary meticulously planned the placement of each stone, not to look perfect, but rather to give it a haphazard, organic look. If it looked too planned or perfect, she would have the workers remove the section and start again. Both Lookout Studio and Hermit’s Rest showcase Mary’s strong belief in blending her work into the beauty of a place rather than compete with it. Mary also designed cabins at Phantom Ranch down in the cabin on the Bright Angel Trail, as well as the charming cabins at Bright Angel Lodge.

Mary’s masterpiece at the Grand Canyon, though, was her last commissioned work there, the Desert View Tower. Built in 1932, the tower was inspired by similar, although much smaller, towers she saw at ancient pueblos at Mesa Verde. This was not a direct replica like the Hopi House, but rather a celebration of many southwest Native American cultures. Mary included little touches like ornamental rocks modeled after Choco Canyon and a rock stacking style from Wupatki. The interior opens up into a kiva-like round room with, of course, a cozy fireplace. The interior of the tower portion is covered in replicas of now destroyed petroglyphs and large colorful paintings of Hopi legend and symbolism. Mary spent six months researching and planning the artwork and even created a handwritten guide to the paintings. The tower beautifully represents Mary’s fascination and respect for the Native American cultures and displays her impressive attention to detail while maintaining an effortless air about it.

Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest by Arnold Berke

Between her time working at the Grand Canyon, Mary designed some gorgeous mission style hotels in New Mexico and Arizona that are depicted in this book along with many wonderful photos of Mary herself, her other masterful designs, and her inspirations. The book captures the spirit of the western romanticism that took over the country in the heyday of continental train tourism in the early 20th century. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to learn more about this time or is intrigued by this wonderful trailblazer.

Trailblazers

Felicity Aston

February 29, 2016July 30, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

Felicity Aston did not start off her trip with a good feeling. She had just flown over the most worrying part of her planned route across the continent of Antarctica and got a good look at the deeply crevassed glaciers scarring the landscape that she planned to traverse over the next 50 days. As she watched the plane take off she had an overwhelming feeling of dread and the realities of her solo journey were beginning to set in.

Felicity Aston - First Woman To Ski Antarctic Solo Guinness World Records 2013 Photo Credit: Paul Michael Hughes/Guinness World Records — Photo Credit: Paul Michael Hughes/Guinness World Records

This was not her first cold weather expedition or her first trip to Antarctica. She first visited Antarctica when she was 23 and spent two and a half years at a British research station monitoring the climate and ozone. She’s led many expeditions in polar regions including a crossing of Greenland and an all-women’s ski to the south pole. But this was her first time alone in Antarctica. Rescue was all but impossible on the remote side on the continent. So she did what whatever she could to focus on the tasks at hand.

I came to view Antarctica as a testing ground that would allow me to understand my potential and my vulnerabilities, an understanding that might, over time, enable me to become a better version of myself.

Felicity endured katabatic winds, blizzards, whiteouts and hallucinations. But she found that the hardest part of the journey was just getting out of the tent in the morning. She knew that if she could do that then she could do anything. Instead of simply celebrating her accomplishment when she finally reached the end of her journey across Antarctica, she was already wondering is she was capable of more. She is motivated by her endless curiosity. I asked Felicity what she is working on now and if she has plans to return to the pole. She answered, “there is one more ski journey I would like to make in Antarctica and I very much hope that I haven’t made my last visit to that most wonderful of continents. However, at the moment I am working on a team of women from Arabia and Europe to ski together to the North Pole in 2017. It is part polar expedition, part cultural experiment.”

I also asked her what advice she would give to a woman who wants to go out solo but is fearful. She says, “I would say, start with a trip / journey / adventure that you feel comfortable with as a trial. Start small just to see how it goes – maybe an overnight by yourself somewhere close to home, or a short break somewhere that involves a bit of traveling around alone. If that goes well, push it a bit further – a week hiking a trail by yourself for example. You’ll soon know if it suits you or not.

It was clear to me that the success of my expedition had not depended on physical strength or dramatic acts of bravery but on the fact that at least some progress – however small – had been made every single day. It had not been about glorious heroism but the humblest of qualities, a quality that perhaps we all too often fail to appreciate for its worth – that of perseverance.

More info about Felicity Aston:
Felicity Aston’s official website

Alone in Antarctica by Felicity Aston

Aston’s memoir of her trip across the Antarctic is brutally honest and forthcoming about the hardships on an epic journey such as the one she accomplished. She does not shy away from the realities of being truly alone and shares the mental struggles she endured as well as the physical. I really felt like I was there with her on her journey with her vivid descriptions of the landscape and her experiences. This quickly became one of my favorite adventure memoirs and I can’t recommend it more.

Trailblazers

Claire Marie Hodges

October 5, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

In 1918, Claire Marie Hodges applied to be a ranger at Yosemite National Park. It was near the end of World War I and Claire saw that the park was struggling to find men to work as rangers. The story goes that she said to the park superintendent, “I know you will he laugh at me, but I want to be a ranger.” The superintendent replied that he beat her to it and that he was meaning to hire a woman to patrol. It was then that Claire became the first ever female National Park ranger at the age of 18.

Claire was born in Santa Cruz in 1890 and fell in love with the Yosemite valley when she was a young girl. She spent four days there with her family when she was 14 and later returned to be a school teacher in the valley. Visitors where surprised to see a woman ranger on the trail, dressed in a park service uniform complete with a Stetson hat and a split skirt. But she was just as capable as the men and completed the same tasks as them. Her time as a ranger did not last long but she held the distinction as the only female National Park ranger for a whopping 30 years. She was certainly ahead of her time and we still aren’t there yet. Only about a third of the current rangers are women and most are confined to the desk jobs. Claire is an inspiration to anyone of any gender to follow their passions and to go out and get that job you want even if no one like you has done it before.

More info about Claire Marie Hodges:
“Yosemite Clare” Hodges: The First Female Park Ranger in Campfire Chronicles
Claire Marie Hodges, First Female National Park Ranger in Adventure Journal

Trailblazers

Robyn Davidson

September 4, 2015July 30, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

In the 1970’s, Australian Robyn Davidson decided she wanted to cross Australia on camel back. She didn’t know anything about camels or much about the desert but she was drawn to the desert and the way of life of the Aboriginal people. So she and her dog, Diggity, headed to Alice Springs to start the first part of her journey: learning everything there is to know about camels and finding camels to take on her trip.

There are some moments in life that are like pivots around which your existence turns – small intuitive flashes, when you know you have done something correct for a change, when you think you are on the right track. I watched a pale dawn streak the cliffs with Day-Glo and realized this was one of them. It was a moment of pure, uncomplicated confidence – and it lasted about ten seconds.

Tracks by Robyn Davidson

When she arrived in Alice Springs she found a camel wrangler, Kurt, that she could work for and learn from. They made an agreement that she would work for 8 months in exchange for a camel. Kurt was a tough man and worked Robyn to the bone. She worked sun up to sun down seven days a week with the camels. He was cruel to her and the animals and once made her go without shoes until her feet got bloody and so infected that he finally allowed her to wear sandals. She stayed in a tent on the outskirts of the ranch and made friends with the neighbors.

She worked for Kurt for over a year and he refused to give her the camel they agreed on. Eventually he left the ranch without a trace and a new owner took over claiming he knew nothing of their agreement and refused her the camel she worked so hard for. She found another camel rancher, Sallay, and started over again. She was devastated about the delay but Sallay was kind and taught her valuable lessons about the wild camels. Finally, 2 years after arriving in Alice Springs, she got her camels: Zelly, Bub, Dookie and baby Goliath.

She met a photographer, Rick, through her friends and he mentioned that she should appeal to National Geographic to fund her journey. She sent them a letter on a whim and then found out that she got the funding. There was a caveat, though, Rick would meet her at points throughout the trip and photograph her for the magazine. She was looking forward to being completely on her own with no distractions, but she reluctantly agreed. But it didn’t matter, because she was finally ready to begin her long-awaited journey.

From the day the thought came into my head ‘I am going to enter a desert with camels’ to the day I felt the preparations to be completed, I had built something intangible but magical for myself which had rubbed off a little on to other people, and I would probably never have the opportunity to do anything quite as demanding or as fulfilling as that ever again.

She started her walk in 130 degree heat. She found her way, slept under the stars, kept track of the camels and figured out how to load everything so that the weight was evenly distributed. She stayed in Aboriginal villages learning from the people. She picked plants for food and mended her own things. Word got out about her in the media and tourists and photographers started following her on the trail. They called her “the camel lady.” She didn’t like the attention. She would have much rather been with the Aboriginal people or by herself.

All around me was magnificence. Light, power, space and sun. And I was walking into it. I was going to let it make me or break me. A great weight lifted off my back. I felt like dancing and calling to the great spirit. Mountains pulled and pushed, wind roared down chasms. I followed eagles suspended from cloud horizons. I wanted to fly in the unlimited blue of the morning. I was seeing it all for the first time, all fresh and bathed in an effulgence of light and joy, as if a smoke had been cleared, or my eyes been peeled, so that I wanted to shout to the vastness, I love you, I love you, sky, bird, wind, precipice, space sun desert desert desert.

After 1700 miles Robyn and the camels immersed themselves in the sparkling aqua ocean. They made it and their miraculous journey was complete. Many people didn’t think she could do it, that it was an impossible task, but she spent years preparing and learning. She did everything possible to make her goal a reality and put in the hard work needed to prepare.

Robyn’s memoir, Tracks, is a must-read for any adventurer and it’s perfectly sized for backpacking. Her story was also made into a fantastic movie in 2013 that is currently available on Netflix.

You must see the photos that Rick Smolan captured of Robyn, they are incredible:
Rick Smolan’s Trek with Tracks, from Australian Outback to Silver Screen on National Geographic

Trailblazers

Barbara Washburn

June 30, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

Shortly after Barbara Polk married Bradford Washburn she found herself at the summit of Mt Bertha in southeast Alaska. She knew that Bradford was an mountaineer but she did not realize that she would soon be joining in the adventures and making several first ascents in Alaska. It was the 1940’s and men did not often take their wives on such adventures, but this couple did everything together. In her memoir, Barbara calls herself an “accidental adventurer” because she says she simply followed her husband on his journeys. But she was much more than just a follower.

The first journey from their home in Massachusetts to Alaska involved trains, planes and dog sleds. Barbara had to learn how to mush on the glaciers of Juneau to reach her first summit, Mt Bertha. She learned how to mush and how to climb, joining a group of men on the first ascent of that peak. She kept up and carried her weight only feeling a little sick at the end of the climb. Back in Juneau she found out she was pregnant.

Her second climb in Alaska was also a first ascent. This time she left her baby at home in Boston to travel with Bradford to Fairbanks to climb Mt Hayes. She led the team up the last 1000 feet along a narrow exposed ledge because she was the lightest and the team wanted her to test the cornices. She trained for her next ambitious climb pushing a baby carriage. On June 6, 1947 after spending nine days in camp riding out a blizzard, she became the first woman to climb Mt McKinley. The following day was Bradford’s birthday and instead of resting they spent the day climbing the North Peak of Mt McKinley.

My children sometimes tell me that I led “Dad’s life.” That is true- but what a fool I would have been to go my own way and miss all of those adventures. I was very lucky to have a husband who wanted me to share his life and who constantly gave me credit for what I did. He opened up a whole new life for me.

Barbara and Bradford continued their adventures after the Mt McKinley climb. When Barbara wasn’t teaching children with special needs, she was traveling with her family around the US and helping Bradford with his mapping jobs. They spent years in the Grand Canyon flying in helicopters and hiking the trails to create maps. They also traveled to Mt Everest in an effort to map the mountain from a plane to determine it’s official height. They didn’t get to complete the mapping on that trip, but colleagues later completed it using their plan.

Barbara may have become an adventurer because of her husband, but she became a trailblazer on her own. She proved herself to be an accomplished climber and adventurer at a time when few women were climbing mountains. She could have easily stayed home to raise the children but instead she followed her adventurous spirit and led a wonderful and full life. She died in September 2014 just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday.

More info about Barbara Washburn:

National Geographic Bio of Barbara and Bradford

Bio on Adventure Journal

Obituary in the Boston Globe

The Accidental Adventurer by Barbara Washburn

Barbara humbly recounts her climbs and life with her husband Bradford in this memoir from her college life in Massachusetts to how she met Bradford and her later years.

Trailblazers

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner

May 15, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

The Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is the first woman to climb all fourteen mountains more than 8000 meters above sea level without supplemental oxygen. She began climbing as a young girl with her church group and youth leader in the mountains near her home in Austria. She studied to become a nurse, but her passion for the mountains never subsided. Although she didn’t reach the summit on her first climb above 8000 meters on Broad Peak, it was then that she decided her goal was to climb all fourteen of the “eight-thousanders”. She worked long hours as a nurse and rode her bike 25 miles each way as a way to train for climbing. She also lived a very humble life, saving every last cent for her climbing trips.

Gerlinde climbs “alpine style” which means that she does not climb with large expedition groups that require a lot of resources. She is self sufficient and carries all of her own gear and food. She also does not use supplemental oxygen and doesn’t rely on the fixed ropes that aid climbers. Instead she relies on and trusts her body to tell her what it needs. She acclimatizes slowly and takes her time all while having a deep respect for the mountain she is climbing.

Up here, I am free; I can leave all responsibilities behind. I don’t have to please anyone else. Far away from everything down there, I can be at one with myself. Whenever I succumb to the world of the high mountains I feel content, even-keeled, and filled with joy. When I climb, I am determined; I feel independent and competent. I make my own clear decisions. In the mountains, I feel very differently than I do down in the valley. I am in my true element.

Gerlinde has experienced much tragedy on her climbs and when many would hang up their ropes, she kept climbing toward her goal. Her nursing skills allowed her to save many lives along the way and to recognize dangerous situations. Although she was deeply affected by the deaths of her fellow climbers, she never let the fear stifle her passion. She also thwarted the media’s attempt to provoke a race between her and fellow trailblazer Edurne Pasaban and instead they climbed two of the mountains together. Then in 2011 after six attempts to climb K2, she finally reached the summit and her impressive goal. Gerlinde is still climbing and she also works with an organization that builds schools for children in Nepal.

More info about Gerlinde:

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner’s website

Adventurer Supreme, National Geographic

A Queen Among Kings, Outside Magazine

Mountains in My Heart by Gerlunde Kaltenbrunner

Gerlinde’s passion for the mountains shines in her book. She tells the stories of each of her climbs, both successes and failures on the way to that fourteenth summit on K2. This book is so good, I got goosebumps at the end of it.

Trailblazers

Emma Gatewood

April 10, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

In 1955 at the age of 67, Emma Gatewood told her eleven children she was going for a walk and then walked for 146 days. Her children weren’t worried about her. After all, she had done something like this many times and was completely capable of sustaining herself. A few years before, Emma read an article in the August 1949 edition of National Geographic about the Appalachian Trail that stretched from Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia 2000 miles to Mount Katahdin in Maine and she decided she would give it a try. Her children were grown and she no longer considered her abusive husband’s opinions. She later told reporters that she thought it would be a lark and “I want to see what’s on the other side of the hill, then what’s beyond that.”

By 1955 only a handful of people had thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and no woman had done it alone, but the National Geographic article made it sound easy to Emma. So she set out with her Keds sneakers, a blanket, and a raincoat wrapped up in a shower curtain and hit the trail. The ups and downs of the trails wore on her feet and she had to find food wherever she could. Most of the people she met along the way were kind to her and provided “trail magic” giving her food and a place to sleep, but others were not so nice and left her to sleep on the dirt. After a while she started to get some attention from local reporters and eventually she became a media sensation. Reporters met with her along the way and fans hiked the trail hoping they would meet the woman dubbed “Grandma Gatewood.”

After dealing with rattlesnakes, a porcupine, twisted ankles, a sprained knee and broken glasses she made the final push up Mt Katahdin. She lost 30 pounds and when asked about finishing she said, “I did it. I said I’d do it and I’ve done it.” She sang a verse from “America the Beautiful” at the summit. But this was not the last time she would reach that summit. She came back and thru-hiked the whole trail again in 1960 and then later a third time in 1963, this time in sections. She was then the first person to hike it three times and the oldest person to complete the trail at the age of 75. She also walked 2000 miles across the country retracing the route of The Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to Portland, Oregon. When back in her home state of Ohio she often visited the Hocking Hills State Park. She worked with the park to connect her favorite trails in the area to form a longer trail called the Buckeye Trail, and a portion of it now bears her name. Every year she would lead the first Winter Walk, a popular program for the State Park. People flocked from all over the country to take a short hike with the legendary hiker.

After 20 years of hanging diapers and seeing my children grow up and go their own way, I decided to take a walk – one I always wanted to take.

Emma’s story still resonates strongly with many hikers. If you ask modern thru-hikers about her they will often say they would think of her when the going got tough: if she could do it, anyone could do it. Although she didn’t come out and say so directly, it would seem that Emma looked to the outdoors for hope and healing from her abusive marriage and found respite from raising 11 children. Her inspiring story gives hope to those who are suffering at the hands of others. She reminds us that you can end the suffering and use that connection we all feel to the earth and nature to restore and heal.

Read more about Emma Gatewood (including info about the upcoming documentary about her called Trail Magic):

Grandma (Emma) Gatewood website

Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery
Ben Montgomery, a journalist for the Tampa Bay Times, put together a wonderful narrative about Emma Gatewood’s story. He was compelled to write about Gatewood after hearing stories about her from his parents growing up. Based mostly on the journals and correspondences she kept at the time, Montgomery weeds out the lore from the facts and even retraces her steps on the AT as she would have walked it and visits the trail dedicated to her in Ohio.

Trailblazers

Helen Thayer

March 12, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

Helen’s childhood in New Zealand prepared her for a lifetime of adventure. She started climbing mountains at the age of nine, attended various mountain schools and by her teenage years was a full fledged high altitude climber. She was also an accomplished athlete representing three countries in track & field and was a US luge champion. And that is just the beginning. With so many accomplishments already to her name, she wanted to try something different. She wanted to explore the unknown parts of the earth and share her findings with the world and especially with kids.

In 1988, Thayer became the first woman to ski unsupported to the North Pole. She completed the 27-day journey with her dog and pulled her own sled. Her best-selling book Polar Dream is her account of the journey. This book had a big impact on me. Helen was not afraid to share the fear she had on the trip and how she struggled along the way. She encountered polar bears, hurricane force winds and navigation challenges. I deeply admire her perseverance during this journey and often think of the courage she had to complete her mission. She collected scientific data as she went to share with kids in a program she founded called Adventure Classroom.

Helen was 50 years old when she trekked alone to the North Pole, but this was just the beginning of many years of adventure to come for her and her husband Bill. Four years after her solo trip to the North Pole, she returned with Bill on foot to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Later they spent a year in the Yukon studying three families of wolves (recounted in the book, 3 Among the Wolves), walked 1500 miles through Death Valley and the Southwestern desert and a year later completed another trek in the Sahara Desert. They followed a herd of caribou from Alberta to Alaska and kayaked 1200 miles on the Amazon river. Amazingly they walked 1600 miles across the length of the Gobi desert in Mongolia (Helen writes about this journey in Walking the Gobi). All throughout their journeys they collected data and material to share with the Adventure Classroom.

My journeys are like life itself. We all have our North Poles and our Gobi deserts, but we can all reach our goals just as I did, one step at a time, never giving up on ourselves. If we reach for the top and believe we can do it, we can make our dreams come true.

Helen and Bill prove that getting older does not mean slowing down. They’ve accomplished more over the age of 50 than most people accomplish in a lifetime. They are still continuing their adventures, in 2012 they walked another 900 miles through the Sahara desert. Helen is currently working on a book about their adventure dog, Charlie.

Read more about Helen and her work here:

Helen Thayer’s Website

Adventure Classroom Website

Helen Thayer Interview on Trekity

Polar Dream, Three Among the Wolves and Walking the Gobi by Helen Thayer
Helen recounts three of her many journeys in these books. She does not romanticize their experiences, rather she recounts all the challenges along with the rewarding times, all the while conveying her adventurous spirit and unwillingness to give up in difficult situations.

Trailblazers

Arlene Blum

January 28, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

When anyone asks me who the most inspirational person is to me when it comes to the outdoors, I say without hesitation, Arlene Blum. Arlene is legendary in the climbing world and beyond. She overcame adversity and defied gender stereotypes as a women in the 1960’s in not one, but two male dominated fields: science and mountaineering. It is trailblazers like her that broke the glass ceiling and led the way for the women of my generation to accomplish anything we put our minds to, unobstructed by the discrimination they endured.

Arlene is best known for leading the first all women ascent of Annapurna which was also the first successful ascent by Americans. Additionally she led an all women ascent of Mt McKinley and was the first woman to attempt climbing Mt Everest. But she was not born a mountaineer. She grew up in Chicago with her mother, grandfather, and a grandmother who told her she was worthless and wouldn’t amount to anything. Instead of believing this, she challenged it. She got straight A’s and fled Chicago to Reed College in Oregon to study biophysical chemistry. When she was not making scientific breakthroughs with her studies she was climbing mountains with the Reed climbers club. As she struggled to fit in with the men in the group she was determined to get in shape and show them she could keep up. She started running everyday in an effort to get the men in the group to overlook her blunders and see her as an equal climber.

My favorite story is about her first climb. In 1964 her friend John invited her to climb Mt Adams with four other guys. When they reached 10,000 feet John explained that one of the climbers tends to get sick at this altitude, did she want to go back down with him? When she said no and that she was having a great time, John confessed that he really asked her on the climb because he assumed she would want to descend early. She refused to retreat and climbed on, keeping up with the others. When they got to the false summit she untied herself and let the others go on ahead only because she had to pee so bad and was too embarrassed to ask the guys to stop. After their summit, the group showed her how to glissade down the mountain in the snow. As they reached the bottom she was horrified to find that the back of her pants and the skin beneath were shredded. As she layed on her stomach in the infirmary that night she wrote to her family, “I just climbed almost to the top of Mt Adams. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been and the best day of my life. The mountains are where I belong.”

I found Arlene at the best possible time in my life. I had just moved to Seattle after college and started hiking and working at my first job, also in a male-dominated field. She made me feel like I could take on anything. She made me think that if I just started running I could climb mountains, a great lesson in starting small to take on big challenges.

Arlene is currently supporting the Green Science Policy Institute with research that aids in protecting us from harmful chemicals and toxins in our products, especially flame retardants.