Beverly Johnson

Beverly Johnson (1947 to 1994) was an American rock climber and adventurer who became one of the best known women of big wall climbing in Yosemite. Born in Annapolis, Maryland, she grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and made her name in Yosemite Valley in the early 1970s. In 1973 she took part in the first all-female ascent of El Capitan with Sibylle Hechtel, and in October 1978 she soloed the Dihedral Wall of El Capitan over about ten days. Her life outside climbing was just as varied: she led a firefighter crew in Yosemite, paddled an open kayak alone through the Strait of Magellan, skied across Greenland, and made documentary films with her husband Mike Hoover. She died in a helicopter crash in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada in April 1994.