OLA EIKREM

Eikrem inspired a generation of women hikers, backpackers and mountain climbers by climbing 68 14,000-foot mountain peaks.

In one summer alone, Eikrem, just 5-foot-4, climbed 23 of them in Colorado. She also climbed Mount Rainier in Washington at age 39 while pregnant.

In the process, she hiked with three generations of men, her father (Cecil Meyers), husband (Bjorn) and son (Erik). She explored every wilderness in the Sierra Nevada, hiking every good-weather weekend for years on end. She carried her infant son in a backpack to Muir Pass on the John Muir Trail in the high Sierra. In the winter, she ventured to Mount Tamalpais and other Bay Area parklands.

She was active in the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society at a time when active women members were rare. She actively campaigned for the Wilderness Act of 1964, the single largest addition of wilderness in American history.