Barbara Washburn never set out to become a mountaineering pioneer, but she wasn't content to be a stay-at-home wife, either. In 1947, defying social convention, Washburn became the first woman to climb Alaska's Mt. McKinley. She accompanied her husband--famed explorer, mountaineer, and photographer Bradford Washburn--on other expeditions to Alaska, the Grand Canyon, and Mt. Everest, while raising three children at their home near Boston.