Hulda Hoehn Crooks (May 19, 1896 – November 23, 1997) was an American

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

. Affectionately known as "Grandma Whitney" she successfully scaled Mount Whitney 23 times between the ages of 65 and 91. She had climbed 97 other peaks during this period. In 1990, an Act of Congress renamed Day Needle, one of the peaks in the Whitney area, to Crooks Peak in her honor. Hulda Hoehn was born in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

, Canada, one of 18 children of a farming couple. She left the farm just before she turned eighteen and enrolled at

Pacific Union College Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private liberal arts college in Angwin, California. It is the only four-year college in Napa County. It is a coeducational residential college with an almost exclusively undergraduate student body. PUC is accre ...

north of San Francisco and later at Loma Linda University. There she met and married Dr Crooks. She took up climbing in 1950, after the death of her husband as he had encouraged her to start after she suffered a bout of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. On July 24, 1987, at the age of 91, she became the oldest woman to complete the ascent of Mount Fuji in Japan. She hiked the entire 212 mile

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) ( Paiute: Nüümü Poyo, ''N-ue-mue Poh-yo'') is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. From the northern terminus a ...

in the high Sierras, completing the hike in segments over five years. Hulda Crooks was a long-time resident of Loma Linda,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

. She often spent time with children in the community, encouraging them to appreciate nature and stay active. In 1991 Loma Linda dedicated a park at the base of the south hills as Hulda Crooks Park. According to Congressman Jerry Lewis (R California), one of her hiking companions, Crooks died in 1997, aged 101.

References

External links

A personal webpage by friends of Crooks

The Backpacking Octogenarian
Health and Fitness
Hiking report at Hulda Crooks Park
includes 3D maps of terrain.
Photo of Jerry Lewis with Hulda Crooks
below Whitney Summit. 1896 births 1997 deaths American mountain climbers American centenarians Female climbers American sportswomen People from Loma Linda, California Women centenarians 20th-century American women 20th-century American people Hikers {{US-climbing-bio-stub