Avery Kernan
The Mountaineers BeWild Speaker Series puts passion and adventure on center stage. Join us at BeWild with Bernadette McDonald on March 14 to learn more about the history and legacy of mountaineering in the Greater Ranges.
Bernadette is the award-winning author of mountaineering literature including Winter 8000, Freedom Climbers, and Brotherhood of the Rope. Her latest book Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges is a long overdue account of the extraordinary local climbers in the Himalaya and Karakoram. She will be joined in conversation by Melissa Arnot Reid, co-founder of The Juniper Fund and the first American woman to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. Copies of Alpine Rising will be available for purchase, and a book signing with Bernadette will follow the talk.
EVENT DETAILS
The event will feature a presentation, discussion, and Q&A. We will have books available for purchase, and a book signing by Bernadette McDonald will follow.
- Doors: 6pm
- Presentation: 7pm
- Q&A: 7:45pm
- Book Signing: 8pm
ABOUT THE BOOK
The name of Maurice Herzog, the first man to reach the summit of Annapurna, is widely recognized, but how many know Ang Tharkay, the Sherpa who carried the seriously frostbitten Herzog on his back for miles? Although rarely mentioned in published accounts of early expeditions, local climbers have long been significant members of first ascents on the world’s tallest and most challenging peaks. In Alpine Rising, award-winning writer Bernadette McDonald sets the record straight by shining a light on these too often forgotten heroes. Now, in the 21 century, it is often local climbers who are setting records. A Nepali team was the first to climb K2 in winter; they reached the summit while singing their national anthem. Pakistani climbers like Little Karim and Ali Sadpara devoted their lives to helping others survive and succeed on and off the mountains and their stories deserve to be celebrated. Written with unprecedented access to climbers and their families, and assisted by researchers on-the-ground in Pakistan and Nepal, Alpine Rising will forever change the way readers see the history and legacy of mountaineering in the Greater Ranges.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
BERNADETTE MCDONALD is the founding Vice President of Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre and directed the Banff Mountain Festivals for 20 years. Few people have the relationships that McDonald does with the world’s most accomplished alpinists. The author of more than a dozen books about mountaineering and mountain culture, she regularly lectures on a variety of topics for universities, festivals, and alpine clubs. McDonald lives in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
MELISSA ARNOT REID is a mountain guide, athlete, and professional speaker. The first American woman to successfully summit and descend Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, Arnot Reid has climbed the world’s highest peak six times. In 2012 she co-founded The Juniper Fund to provide financial support to families of local workers killed in the mountains of Nepal, and she continues to be actively involved with the fund. She lives in the Methow Valley with her husband, Tyler, and their two kids.
