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, Bradford Washburn, on other expeditions to Alaska, the Grand Canyon, and Mt. Everest, while raising three children at their home near Boston.
Barbara Washburn was born in 1914. A graduate of Smith College, she married mountaineer-explorer-mapmaker Bradford Washburn in 1940. Six years later, climbing with her husband, she became the first woman to reach the summit of 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak. The mother of three, she also became one of the nation's earliest remedial reading teachers, and received awards in several fields of endeavor.
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