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The Yorktown High School Hall of Fame and Inspiration

Beverly Johnson

Inducted Spring 2004

1947-1994
World-Class Rock Climber
YHS Class of 1965
Inducted 2004

Adventurer, most celebrated female rock climber; undertook climbing, skiing expeditions all over the world; in 1978 became first woman to solo climb notorious El Capitan's vertical face, which took ten days; in 1980's filmed the Russian-Afghan war with her husband; first woman crew-boss firefighter in Yosemite; first person to solo the Straits of Magellan in open kayak; first person to pilot a gyro-craft in the Antarctic; skied across Greenland, windsurfed across Bering Straits, led all-woman team to parachute into highlands of New Guinea; attended Kent State University and University of Southern California; gymnast in college and high school; died April 3, 1994, in helicopter crash during ski trip to Ruby Mountains of Nevada.