Beverly Johnson (22 April 1947 – 3 April 1994) was a pioneering

rock climber Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

and adventurer.

Early life

Johnson was born in

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and as the daughter of a Navy Officer travelled significantly in her early years. They settled in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...

and she attended Yorktown High School, graduating in 1965, later attending

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

where she trekked with the mountaineering club and the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. After graduating from college her first job was making

parka A parka or anorak is a type of coat with a hood, often lined with fur or faux fur. This kind of garment is a staple of Inuit clothing, traditionally made from caribou or seal skin, for hunting and kayaking in the frigid Arctic. Some Inuit ano ...

s in

Sun Valley, Idaho Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1406 at the 2010 census, down from 1427 in 2000.cross country ski Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

instructing. Later she moved to

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

working on firefighting and

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

she was the first woman to lead a firefighter crew in Yosemite.

Climbing

At the age of 24, Beverly Johnson was already an established member of the Camp-4 community in

in 1971. She was part of the first all female climb of

El Capitan El Capitan ( es, El Capitán; "the Captain" or "the Chief") is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granit ...

with Sibylle Hechtel and the first woman to solo climb Dihedral wall of

over a period of 10 days in October 1978. Johnson first met her future husband

Mike Hoover Mike Hoover is an American mountaineer, rock climber and cinematographer. He first became known for an Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary short, ''Solo'', in which he climbed a fictional mountain solo. His first major involvement in ...

in about 1967 when he accidentally hit her with a

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...

whilst climbing different routes in Yosemite but they fell in love on a climbing expedition to Venezuela. They climbed Mt. Vinson in Antarctica for their

honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...

. She was the leader of a six-member female team who parachuted into the

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

n highlands and climbed back out, filmed by Hoover.

Other activities

Johnson participated in many adventurous activities, many of them firsts including being the first person to solo cross the

Straits of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural pass ...

in open

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

. She also skied across

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

and windsurfed across Bering Straits. Johnson flew fixed-winged planes and helicopters and was the first person to pilot an

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Both Johnson and her husband were makers of award-winning documentaries, Hoover winning an Academy Award in 1984 for '' Up''. The couple also explored and filmed around the

Palmer Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...

in Antarctica using

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the e ...

s. They were both filmcrew on the 1979 Transglobe Exhibition which circumnavigated the globe via the poles. Johnson and Hoover filmed the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Death

Johnson was an advanced skier and was on a two-day heli-ski trip in the

Ruby Mountains The Ruby Mountains are a mountain range, primarily located within Elko County with a small extension into White Pine County, in Nevada, United States. Most of the range is included within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The range reache ...

in 1994. The helicopters returned to take the party back off the mountain in bad weather; Johnson's 206B3 Jet Ranger helicopter had to land and wait two hours for the storm to subside. After taking off again, the helicopter developed engine trouble and crashed in Thorpe Creek Canyon, around five miles south of Lamoille. Johnson was killed and her husband Mike Hoover was critically injured in the same crash but survived. The pilot, Dave Walton, and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

president

Frank Wells Franklin G. Wells (March 4, 1932 – April 3, 1994) was an American businessman who served as president of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until his death in 1994. Life and career Wells was born in Coronado, California and traced his ancestry ...

were also killed in the crash. Hoover later sued the helicopter manufacturer and reached an out-of-court

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...

due to a fault with the engine design relating to snow ingestion. The legal case was a finalist for the Steven J. Sharp Public Service Award by the

American Association for Justice The American Association for Justice (AAJ), formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) is a nonprofit advocacy and lobbying organization for plaintiff's lawyers in the United States. Focused on opposing tort reform, the organiza ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Beverly 1947 births 1994 deaths Accidental deaths in Nevada American rock climbers American female climbers People from Annapolis, Maryland 20th-century American sportswomen Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1994 Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents in the United States Yorktown High School (Virginia) alumni