There will be six of endeavoring on this wild adventure in May of 2018.
Follow our adventure here and through our instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akmountainwomen/
Katie McCaffrey
Expedition Member
Katie McCaffrey grew up in Alaska between Nome and Fairbanks. She moved south to Juneau in 2015 for the University of Southeast Alaska's Geography, Environmental Studies, and Outdoor Studies program. Through the degree she has taken classes in both rock and ice climbing, backcountry navigation, sea kayaking, winter backpacking, glacier travel and crevasse rescue, and mountaineering. She also has her WFR and avalanche 1 certifications. Katie has returned this year as a teaching assistant, which has been a great opportunity to hone her skills. She has spent two nonconsecutive weeks in the Taku Range of the Juneau Icefield, both trips spoiled with sunny weather and good snow. Last May, she traveled to the Chugach Range outside of Anchorage for an attempt of Mount Marcus Baker (over 13,000'). This trip was shutdown by a storm that kept them in basecamp for two weeks, but she still loved the time spent with friends in extreme elements. She is excited to be part of this all-female crew and learn more of what it takes to plan a big trip in remote Alaska.
Rebekah King
Expedition Member
Rebekah King started exploring the mountains as a child in Colorado. Her desire to find bigger peaks and more wild places lead her to Alaska in 2010. She graduated from Alaska Pacific University with a degree in Outdoor Education, concentrating on Snow Science. Rebekah has spent the past 4 years working as a mountaineering instructor for both NOLS and Alaska Mountaineering School. Her work and personal trips have taken her into of Patagonia. Rebekah has been a part of several all-female Expeditions in the the Alaskan, Chugach, and Wrangell ranges in Alaska; as well as to the ice fields past which highlighted the empowering, unique dynamic they provide. She is excited to continue to learn from and mentor other women in the outdoors.
Mary Gianotti
Expedition Member
Mary Gianotti grew up in Juneau, Alaska. She found her love for mountains and glaciers at a young age playing in the vast, beautiful backyard with her two younger brothers. Mary has led day trips to eight-week backpacking, glacier mountaineering, and winter courses for various outdoor non-profits such as the Juneau Icefield Research Program, Teton Science Schools, High Mountain Institute, The Wrangell Mountain Center, and National Outdoor Leadership School. She has traversed the Juneau Icefield twice (2013, 2014). She attempted Mt. Jarvis (13, 422 feet) in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska but had to turn around because of a crevasse fall on her rope team. She planned a completely self-supported, 53 mile, 7 day ski mountaineering traverse with three others to summit Emperor Peak on the Juneau Icefield but was only able to complete the first 25 miles because of poor weather conditions. In 2016 she attempted to traverse the Juneau Icefield with an unsupported three person team. She has her Wilderness First Responder and taken an AIARE Avalanche I course. Mary has unconditional love for mountaineering and for the soggy landscape of Southeast Alaska. She is excited to share that love with this amazing group of women.
Auri Clark
Expedition Member
Auri Clark was born and raised in Juneau, AK. She is currently enrolled in the Outdoor Leadership and Skills program at UAS where she’ll be practicing navigation skills, ice climbing, glacier travel, and crevasse rescue. She will also be obtaining her Wilderness First Responder certification through this program. She has taken a 6-day mountaineering course in Washington (which included summiting Mount Baker) and will be taking an AIARE I course in December. In the summer of 2016, she spent two months on the Juneau Icefield during the Juneau Icefield Research Program where she practiced knots, glacier travel, and crevasse rescue while traversing the icefield. In the summer of 2017, she climbed Colchuck Peak and Glacier Peak on personal mountaineering trips. She has also worked at Stevens Pass Ski Resort the last two winter seasons as a bootfitter and hard-goods specialist. She is excited for this trip because it will be the first extended mountaineering/ski trip she has helped plan, fundraise and train for. And it is always exciting to go somewhere not many people have been before, and as remote as the Stikine Icefield.
Hannah Rosenkrans
Expedition Member
Hannah Rosenkrans is a born and raised Alaskan. Her outdoor adventures began before she could even walk. She began with small mountaineering expeditions in college after learning how to climb and ski. Her geoscience degree and GIS (Geographical Information System) certificate allowed for unique opportunities in the mountains through research and mapmaking. Previously Whitewater Rescue certified and currently Wilderness First Responder and AED/CPR certified, she pursues opportunities where her skills and abilities can be used and challenged. One of her toughest trips to date was an attempt at a traverse across the Juneau Icefield from Atlin, British Columbia to Juneau, Alaska. Although unsuccessful, the expedition taught her important lessons of how to be better prepared both mentally and physically for the next expedition. The Stikine Icefield expedition is a culmination of what she has been working towards the last three years through personal adventures, trips with colleagues, technical classes and workshops, failed and successful trips and dreams of new mountains places yet to be explored. The stoke is real high.
Beth Loudon
Expedition Member
Beth Loudon moved to Juneau, Alaska in 2015, after graduating from Wheaton College in Chicago, IL. Originally from the East Coast, she felt that something was missing from her life, and decided to follow that call up north. After a few seasons of guiding for a zipline, working for local non-profit groups, and playing violin in the symphony, she has decided to turn to what called her to this beautiful place in the first place - the vast peaks of Alaska. She plans on taking an Avalanche Course this December, and will take her WFR course this spring. The lone snowboarder of the trip, she plans to splitboard her way through these first ascents of unnamed peaks, and she can't be more excited to venture onto the remote Stikine Icefield alongside other adventurous and nature-loving women.
Kristen Lyda Rees
Support/Alternate
Kristen Lyda Rees moved to Alaska in 2012 when she got a wild hair and felt like something was missing from her life. After several seasons guiding on glaciers for a helicopter company and a wilderness trekking company, she decided to go back to school and currently attends University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau where she is studying Anthropology and Political Science. She has her current WFR and plans on taking an avalanche course this winter. Gaining a broader perspective of the outdoors, the concept of nature, and wilderness changed the course of her life, especially when relating to climate change. Kristen Lyda participated in the Juneau Icefield Research program (JIRP) in 2016 and is interested in how humans relate to their environments and expedition dynamics. She looks forward to learning from fellow female adventurers on the Stikine Icefield.
Annika Ord
Support/Alternate
Annika grew up splitting time between the coastal mountain town of Juneau, Alaska and her family’s remote homestead at Couverden, Alaska at the confluence of three major waterways. Her love of wild places and the communities that grow from them, has led her to split her years between sea and ice, working as a commercial fisherman (woman) in the spring and fall and for the Juneau Icefield Research Program, an educational climate change organization, in the summer. In winters, you can find her skiing at the small town, big terrain Eaglecrest ski area, trekking some Patagonian peaks, working on her co-produced ecofeminist zine, or sailing with SEA Semester studying the dynamics between coastal communities and sustainability in New Zealand. In 2014 and 2015, she organized and completed two remote wilderness traverses along the outer coast of the Fairweather Range from Icy Straits to Yakutat, Alaska, which in total covered 180 miles. For the Juneau Icefield Research Program she works as senior safety staff where she helps manage 50+ person field camps, teaches glacier navigation and rescue, supports field research, and leads traverses across the icefield from Juneau, Alaska to Atlin, Canada. She is excited to join this group of strong, highly competent women in their expedition on the Stikine Icefield and sees it as an incredible opportunity to learn from each other and from the ice and peaks of this remote and rigorous environment.
Kit Cunningham
Support/Alternate
Kit Cunningham was born in Juneau, Alaska and has just finished up a Conservation Biology and Ecology degree at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. She has been guiding glacier, kayak, and bear viewing trips in Alaska for the past 4 summers and loves learning about the outdoors, both in a recreational and scientific setting. In 2016, she participated in the Juneau Icefield Research program, which is an 8-week scientific course traversing the Juneau Icefield. In 2017, she enrolled in the University of Alaska mountaineering class, which summitted Emperor and Snowdrift Peak. In the summer of 2017, she executed her first 3-week unsupported ski-mountaineering trip on the Juneau Icefield. She is a certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and has her Avalanche Level 1. Outside of school, you will find her sport and trad climbing multi-pitch routes in Montana and Idaho. She is ecstatic about the opportunity to learn new outdoor skills and the planning process of a big trip with a group of awesome women.
Tiffany Stephens
Support/Alternate
Tiffany Stephen’s general curiosity about life led her to the mountains, those far away things that no one in her teenage social circle ever went. She grew up in WA State but didn’t discover the mountain stoke until moving to New Zealand for graduate school. Working with the Otago University Tramping Club, the New Zealand Alpine Club, and the Varsity Outdoor Club (University of British Columbia), she has participated in many alpine trips and helped teach introductory courses on snow skills and rope work. She has avalanche assessment, outdoor leadership, and advanced alpine skills courses under her belt and is keen to continue using what several mentors have passed on to her. Last year she defected from normal holiday cheer with her family to work at a ski resort to bone-up on skiing skills. She’s spankin' new to Juneau (Sept 2017). Things that she hope to get out of training and exploring with this group of ladies includes adventure, friends, familiarity with the SE AK scene, and increasing ski confidence.