Accidental Adventurer

Barbara Washburn never set out to become a mountaineering pioneer, but she wasn't content to be a stay-at-home wife, either. In 1947, defying social convention, Washburn became the first woman to climb Alaska's Mt. McKinley. She accompanied her husband—famed explorer, mountaineer, and photographer Bradford Washburn—on other expeditions to Alaska, the Grand Canyon, and Mt. Everest, while raising three children at their home near Boston.