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Last Ascents: Kitty Calhoun

Author(s): Kitty Calhoun| TEDx Moses Brown School
Video Release Date: November 23, 2014
Video Source: YouTube

Kitty first roped up in South Carolina at 18. A year later, she started ice climbing while attending University of Vermont which led to winter ascents in the Rockies where her passion for alpine climbing began. While guiding for the American Alpine Institute, she traveled worldwide and climbed dozens of peaks in Peru, Bolivia, Alaska, Argentina, and Nepal. In 1990, she led a successful expedition to climb Makalu — the fifth highest mountain in the world at 27,825′ which is located on the border between Nepal and China — becoming the first woman to make the ascent. During her career, Kitty has instructed the Navy Seals, been an instructor for Outward Bound, starred in a climbing documentary called Fire on Ice, received the prestigious Underhill Award for outstanding mountaineering achievement from the American Alpine Club, and created the Mugs Stump Award which grants funds to expeditions who most exemplify a fast and light climbing style. Today, Kitty can be found climbing in and around her home in Castle Valley, Utah or leading worldwide trips for Chicks Climbing, the premier U.S. provider of women’s ice and rock climbing clinics, and Patagonia, where she has been a mountaineering ambassador since 2000.

More about Moses Brown School: www.mosesbrown.org

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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