Stacy Allison

A high school honor student with little idea of what she wanted to do with her life, Stacy Allison became the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest.

"I felt a swell of emotion rise inside me when I made it to the top. It was an exhilaration I'd never felt before. Almost immediately, I knew this was what I was meant to do."
Stacy Allison

Read how Stacy became the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest, then ask Stacy questions. Her answers will be published on this Web site.

Stacy Allison grew up in Woodburn, Oregon, a small farming town thirty miles south of Portland. Throughout her school years she swam competitively, played piano, danced, and skied. Even with all her after-school activities, Stacy says she was lacking direction and confused about what she wanted to do with her life.

After graduating from high school with honors in 1976, she went on to Oregon State University to study Biology.

During Spring Break her first year at OSU, an acquaintance in her dorm posted a notice that he was going down to Zion National Park in Utah to rock climb and was anyone interested in sharing a ride. Stacy and another friend thought this sounded like a great adventure and signed up.

Her first rock climb was an easy twenty-five foot rock cliff. After almost an hour struggling upwards, falling, trying again, and lots of tears, she finally made it to the top.

At the age of 21, Stacy attempted her first major climb, Mt. Huntington in Alaska. Although she did not summit, the desire to climb big mountains began in earnest. The following year, Stacy reached the top of Mt. McKinley, and was part of the first successful women's ascent of Ama Dablam, the 22,495-foot peak known as Nepal's Matterhorn.

Stacy was the first American woman to top Pik Communism, at 24,600 feet, the tallest peak in the Russian Pamir Range.

As a member of the North Face American Mt. Everest Expedition, Stacy did not summit Mt. Everest, but she returned to the mountain. On September 29, 1988, after 29 days on the mountain, Stacy became the first American woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the world's highest mountain at 29,028 feet.

Submit your questions for Stacy.

Also see Stacy Allison's appearance on the NewsHour.