WAYNE POULSEN

A University of Nevada star skier in the 1930s (on a U.S. team that defeated Hitler's best collegians and placed third in the U.S. Olympic trials), Wayne Poulsen purchased 2,000 acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad in a beautiful valley northwest of Lake Tahoe with plans to develop a ski area. 

 Poulsen and his wife, Sandy, would climb its peaks in winter using climbing skins.

Famously, one peak was so steep that Sandy had to make 22 kick turns to ski down it. Wayne named the mountain KT-22 in homage to K-2 a famous peak in the Himalayas.

 Following service in World War II, Poulsen became an airline pilot, though always with the dream of building a ski area in Squaw Valley. In 1946, he met Harvard-trained lawyer, Alexander Cushing, who was vacationing at nearby Sugar Bowl. Poulsen showed Cushing his valley and the NY lawyer immediately became infatuated with Poulsen’s idea of creating a mountain resort there. The two began working together. Poulsen had the land and Cushing had the capital, political connections, and the ability to make the project happen. However, the two men soon had a falling out over the resort's future. Poulsen lost control when Cushing became chair of the Squaw Valley Ski Corporation.

 While Cushing controlled the mountain, Poulsen remained living in the Valley, opening a ski area for beginners (Papoose) and consulting on Sugar Bowl, Bogus Basin, Mt. Rose, Incline and Boreal Ridge. When the State of California sold its interest in Squaw Valley to Mainline Properties, an Australian firm with interests in real estate development, Mainline welcomed Poulsen's involvement, but that too fell apart.

 The Poulsen story is star crossed. A ski champion had a dream that became reality, but without him to lead or benefit from his idea. And yet, the Poulsen family left a legacy on California ski sport both from Wayne's vision and from the Poulsen family's successes on the US Ski Team. 

 Poulsen's dream brought the Winter Olympic Games and fame to California, greatly expanding winter sport in The Golden State.

 Wayne Poulsen was inducted to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1980.

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BIANCA VALENTI

When Bianca Valenti asked a shaper to create a surfboard for her to ride at Mavericks, the famed monster break off the shore of Half Moon Bay, he said he'd do so only if she promised not to die.

With her signature pink surfboard, Valenti became a fixture at Mavericks, previously a male domain until she proved her mettle on waves reaching 50 feet.  Valenti was awarded this honor because of her prowess as an elite big-wave surfer, proponent of gender equality in professional surfing and inspiration to thousands of women to set aside their fears and paddle into the roiling ocean to surf.

At the time Valenti began competing in big wave surfing, there weren't female divisions, so she competed against boys and often won. As a teen, she won regularly but saw that women weren't being treated as serious competitors. This led her to successes in achieving gender equality in surfing and changing the sport for women, everywhere.

She is one of 11 women who compete in the World Surf League’s big-wave tour and has been at the forefront of creating opportunities for women outdoor athletes. This league competes at such legendary big wave venues as Puerto Escondido, Mexico; Pe'ahi, Maui, Hawaii; Mavericks, California; Nazare, Leiria, Portugal; and Haiku, Maui, Hawaii.

Valenti led the charge in 2018 to get women equal prize money as men in professional big-wave surfing. Outside Magazine named her one of the Most Accomplished Athletes in 2018 along with famed climber Alex Honnold (COHOF Class of 2020 member) and tennis champion Naomi Osaka.

Most recently, she finished on the podium at the 2021 XXL Big Wave Awards for biggest paddle of the year, is a two times winner of the Puerto Excondido Cup (2018. 2019) and was the first woman to win a big wave competition at Nelscott Reef in Oregon (2014).

She has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, PBS, BBC World News, and ESPN, among many other publications. Valenti volunteers with Brown Girl Surf to promote women and girls of color to become surfers. She is equally committed to ocean conservation as an ambassador for Save the Waves Coalition and Sustainable Surf. Valenti also founded the Better Wave Foundation that seeks to empower outdoor athletes by getting them healthcare, 401k and support.

JESSIE BENTON FRÉMONT

Yosemite National Park, indeed the entire National Park System, might not exist today were it not for the influence of Jessie Benton Frémont. 

Married to John C. Frémont and the daughter of the most influential Democratic senator of the mid 1800s, Thomas Hart Benton, she influenced such luminaries as Horace Greeley, Thomas Starr King, Richard Henry Dana Jr. and U.S. Sen. Edward Baker to join Galen Clark and Sen. John Conness in urging Congress to set aside Yosemite and its Giant Sequoias in what comprises the heart of Yosemite National Park, today. 

In 1864 at the height of the Civil War, she traveled to Washington, D.C. with photographs of Yosemite Valley that she’d commissioned Carleton Watkins to take and personally entreated President Abraham Lincoln (they knew each other well), to save Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees by signing The Yosemite Grant, the first instance of land being set aside specifically for its preservation and public use by a national government. It was an extraordinary idea, proposed in extraordinary times, in part by an extraordinary woman. 

Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and historian Craig MacDonald asked, "If not for what she did behind the scene (during an age when women did not have the vote or any voice in public life), would there be a Yosemite National Park today, would John Muir have been drawn to the Valley because of the attention given it by its protection, would there have even been the foundation necessary to lead to establishing national parks?"

The Yosemite Grant set the foundation not only for the national parks, but for the California State Parks, as well. Still today, the words "Since 1864" are inscribed on the California State Parks symbol, a reminder of what this California heroine helped set in motion.

Before her work to protect Yosemite, Jessie Benton Frémont grew up on the frontier in Missouri and was the pen behind John C Frémont's widely read reports of his western expeditions. She followed that up with best-selling stories of his adventures that made her and her husband mega stars in their day. Her words inspired hundreds of thousands to venture west. No female writer in American history had a greater formative influence on America's view of California. She was prolific throughout her life, writing A Year of American Travel about her 1849 trek to California and regularly contributing to national magazines. Through her writings, she added an early  feminine voice to the history of California's outdoors. Jessie Benton Frémont is buried in Los Angeles, her adopted home. 

GREG LEMOND

Greg LeMond was the first American to win the Tour de France. He won it thrice.

Born in Lakewood, Calif., he grew up on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Hiking, hunting, skiing and flyfishing were boyhood pastimes. "I was a boy who just could not sit still." he said. 

Afflicted with ADHD, he was unable to get help from his parents and educators who did not have the knowledge to diagnose and cope with his affliction, but when he got into cycling it changed his life. He rode his bike everywhere, often to school by riding over Mt. Rose pass. 

At 17, he finished second in the Tour of Fresno, catching the attention of the US Cycling Federation. He was then selected as the youngest member of the US Olympic Cycling Team and began winning amateur races. 

His debut as a pro was to win a stage of the Tour de France in 1981. He continued to place highly and was the first American to win a medal at the world championships. In the '84 Tour de France, he won the Young Rider jersey and placed second overall. In '86 LeMond became the first American to win the Tour. 

Following a near-fatal hunting accident in '87, he could not ride until '89 where he won another Tour, then again in '90. LeMond's success profoundly influenced American cycling, encouraging generations of Americans to compete and it stimulated broad interest in the sport. 

When his team recommended that he dope his blood, LeMond refused. He became an outspoken critic of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling. LeMond admitted that the prevalence of doping among other athletes shortened his career. Following his retirement from cycling in '94, he was inducted into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame.

Thereafter, LeMond established LeMond Cycles that innovated carbon frames, LeMond Fitness to help individuals train more effectively and LeMond Composites to manufacture high-volume, low-cost carbon fiber composites, among other ventures.

No American has had a more positive impact upon cycling than Greg LeMond.

EMILY HARRINGTON

Emily Harrington, Truckee, is one of the most successful and versatile professional climbers in the world. She also has inspired countless thousands through appearances on national television shows and national media, where she shared her story of overcoming hardship with the support of her dad, and then bonding amid the outdoor experience.

This past November, Harrington became the first woman to free climb ‘Golden Gate’ on El Capitan in under 24 hours, making her the 4th woman in history to free climb El Capitan in a day. If elected, she would be the second Hall of Fame member to have summited Mt. Everest. She’s a five-time US National Champion, has completed numerous first female ascents of 5.14 routes, and made a complete ski descent of Cho Oyu - the world’s 6th tallest peak. 

She also gained national attention that has inspired families across America. After she had a near-death fall at El Capitan, and her father, Tim, 64, faced high-altitude edema issues, the father-daughter team supported each other to climb 18,996-foot Mount Cayambe in Ecuador. The story landed them on television shows across America and inspired parent-child connections in the outdoors to bond and move forward under hardship.

Emily called this her greatest personal victory: Surviving the fall at El Capitan and then climbing Cayambe with her dad. “We’ll always be connected for life.”

Emily satisfies the two requirements of all Hall of Fame members: A paramount scope of adventure – she is among the world’s preeminent climbers; and has inspired thousands to take part in the outdoor experience, especially parents and their children.

LARRY GREENE

Posthumous

To thousands of California anglers, 4:55 a.m. Monday through Saturday was a special time.  That's because for nearly 20 years the late Larry Greene's extremely popular “Fisherman's Forecast” radio show was broadcast through KCBS 740-AM out of San Francisco. 

 The highly informative program covered fishing reports for much of California and southern Oregon.  If fish were biting anywhere along that 1,000 mile axis, Larry let you know exactly what was going on.  Anyone who ever heard that show can never forget its parting line: “That's the 'Fisherman's Forecast'; I'm Larry Greene.”

 Larry's passion for sharing the joy of fishing went beyond radio.  His angling knowledge was made available through numerous books, countless magazine articles in regional and national publications, as a mentor, and as an instructor where he taught introductory and advanced fishing classes for over 10  years at Skyline Community College in San Bruno.

 And for close to 20 years Larry was Master of Ceremonies for the annual International Sportsmen's Exposition in San Mateo where he introduced featured seminar speakers to their audiences, and served as a de facto “Ambassador of Fishing” as he patrolled the show's aisles, conversing freely with exhibitors,  celebrities, and “Average Joe” show attendees alike.

 A champion of fisheries conservation, Larry was a huge supporter of the efforts in establishing United Anglers of California.

 Larry's angling expertise was garnered from almost 50 years of fishing practically every mile of both fresh and saltwater environs in California, plus adventures in several US states.

Larry died in 2002 when on special assignment for KCBS-TV2 as a cameraman off the coast of Iran when the U.S. Navy helicopter he was riding in crashed. Greene was covering U.S. servicemen serving in the Middle East.