Arlene Blum (born 1945) is an American mountaineer. She is best known for leading an all-woman ascent of Annapurna (I), a climb that was also the first successful American ascent. She also was a deputy leader of the first all-woman ascent of Mount McKinley and was the first woman to attempt to ascend Mount Everest.
A native of Chicago, Blum was raised by her Orthodox Jewish mother and grandparents. In the early 1960s, she attended Reed College in...
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Arlene Blum (born 1945) is an American mountaineer. She is best known for leading an all-woman ascent of Annapurna (I), a climb that was also the first successful American ascent. She also was a deputy leader of the first all-woman ascent of Mount McKinley and was the first woman to attempt to ascend Mount Everest.
A native of Chicago, Blum was raised by her Orthodox Jewish mother and grandparents. In the early 1960s, she attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, a part of the country which presented her with an initial opportunity for a major ascent. Her first attempt was in Washington, where she failed to reach the summit of Mount Adams. However, she persevered, climbing throughout her college days. Writing her senior thesis on the topic of volcanic gases on Oregon's Mount Hood enabled her to go climbing as part of her research. Blum graduated from Reed and attended MIT and UC Berkeley, where she earned a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry. After graduate school, Blum embarked on what...
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