Bonnie Prudden

Bonnie Prudden (born Ruth Alice Prudden, 29 January 1914, died 11 December 2011) was an American physical fitness pioneer, rock climber and mountaineer. Between 1946 and 1955 she became one of the most prominent female climbers of her time, with a documented 30 first ascents in the Shawangunks, including the route Bonnie's Roof at the Trapps in 1952. She was the first woman to hold a National Ski Patrol badge. Her report to President Eisenhower on the unfitness of American children, prepared with Hans Kraus, led to the formation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness. She wrote 16 books on fitness and myotherapy, a method she coined in 1976, and died in Tucson, Arizona.