Historical Badass

Bud and Temple Abernathy

1899 — 1979

The original free-range children. Rode horseback across America. Alone. As kids.

Carl Akeley

1864 — 1926

Killed a leopard with his bare hands. That was just the beginning.

Jaime de Angulo

1887 — 1950

Wild anarchist homesteader and feral trickster

Abigail Becker

1830 — 1905

Open-water life saver who couldn't swim.

Gertrude Benham

1867 — 1938

'A bad type of British traveler to be allowed to enter Tibet'

Peter Bird

1947 — 1996

"It's just an adventure. You don't have to justify it."

Walt Blackadar

1922 — 1978

Hard-partying kayaker who ran rivers no one else would touch

Ada Blackjack

1898 — 1983

Single mom became an Arctic castaway

Tom Blake

1902 — 1994

Taught the world what it meant to be a surfer.

Louise Boulaz

1908 — 1991

The boundary-smashing climber they called the Queen of the North Faces

Freddie S. Chapman

1907 — 1971

Alpine climber and WWII saboteur spent three years behind enemy lines

Millican Dalton

1867 — 1947

Cave-dwelling, chain-smoking professor of adventure

Ann Davison

1913 — 1992

First woman to sail solo across the Atlantic

Glen Dawson

1912 — 2016

Sierra pioneer led climbs in sneakers when everyone else wore boots

Aleksander Doba

1946 — 2021

Kayaked across the Atlantic. He was 70.

Rosalie Edge

1877 — 1962

Socialite turned hawk defender turned conscience of American conservation.

John Fairfax

1937 — 2012

Wrestled sharks. Rowed oceans. Did a little gunfighting.

Al Faussett

1879 — 1948

Daredevil never met a 100-foot waterfall he wouldn't run in a dugout log

Don Flickinger

1907 — 1997

Parachuted into jungle to rescue crashed WWII airmen

Tom Frost

1936 — 2018

The photographer and engineer behind climbing's golden age

Emma Gatewood

1887 — 1973

Left an abusive husband. Thru-hiked the AT at 67. In sneakers.

Tommy Godwin

1912 — 1975

Rode equivalent of three laps of the planet. Kept going.

Walter Greaves

1907 — 1987

Vegetarian. One arm. Rode a bicycle farther than anyone

Matthew Henson

1866 — 1955

100% polar explorer badass.

Maurice Herzog

1919 — 2012

Summited Annapurna. Lost all his fingers and toes getting down.

Clare Marie Hodges

1890 — 1970

First female national park ranger—Yosemite, 1918

Buzz Holmstrom

1909 — 1946

First to solo row the Grand Canyon. Built his own boat

Alexander Von Humboldt

1769 — 1889

The man who invented nature

Amy Johnson

1903 — 1941

Left her secretary job and became one of history's best pilots

Beverly Johnson

1947 — 1994

Changed what women could do on the big walls of Yosemite

Vera Komarkova

1942 — 2005

Led the first American women's team to summit Annapurna.

Jerzy Kukuczka

1948 — 1989

Rivaled Messner for the title of world's best climber.

Anne LaBastille

1933 — 2011

Out-Thoreau'd Thoreau. Lived alone in the Adirondack wilderness for decades

Katie Lee

1919 — 2017

Desert goddess, river runner, singer, and hell-raiser until age 98.

Hilary Lister

1972 — 2018

Quadriplegic. Sailed around Britain by sipping and puffing

Jeff Lowe

1950 — 2018

Changed the calculus of what was possible on ice and rock.

Hamish MacInnes

1930 — 2020

Saved hundreds of climbers — and, eventually, his own mind

Beryl Markham

1902 — 1986

One-upped Amelia. Flew solo across the Atlantic the hard way. Wrote that book

Andrew McAuley

1968 — 2007

Came heartbreakingly close to kayaking across the Tasman Sea

Amir Mehdi

1913 — 1999

Carried loads to the summit ridge of K2. Was betrayed and left to die.

Enid Michael

1883 — 1966

Yosemite's first woman naturalist — and a badass climber too

Bernard Moitessier

1925 — 1994

Led solo round-the-world race. Instead of finishing, kept sailing

Natalia Molchanova

1962 — 2015

World's best free diver. Vanished during her final dive

Dervla Murphy

1931 — 2022

Cycled from Ireland to India. Carried a pistol and a sense of humor

Poppa Neutrino

1933 — 2011

Jazzed his way across the Atlantic on a raft made of trash.

Jack O’Neill

1923 — 2017

Invented the wetsuit and made the endless summer possible.

Wiley Post

1898 — 1935

One-eyed felon aviator record-breaker

Wanda Rutkiewicz

1943 — 1992

Alpinist hiked 70 miles to K2 on crutches. Yes, crutches.

Marcel Rémy

1923 — 2022

Still climbing at 99.

Sanmao

1943 — 1991

Desert explorer who inspired millions of Asian women to adventure.

William Sheppard

1865 — 1927

The Black Livingstone — explored the heart of Africa

Ang Rita Sherpa

1948 — 2020

'Snow Leopard' climbed Everest without oxygen ten times

Eric Shipton

1907 — 1977

His style and whims shaped half a century of mountaineering

Van Buren Sisters

1884 — 1959

Suffragist motorcycle pioneers who rode across America in 1916

Marion Smith

1942 — 2022

Explored more caves than any human in history

Bob and Ira Spring

1918 — 2003

The badasses who chronicled Washington's wilderness

Don Starkell

1932 — 2012

Paddled 75,000 miles before he found his limita

Alfonsina Strada

1891 — 1959

The Devil in a Dress who rode the world's toughest bike tour

Bessie Stringfield

1911 — 1993

The Motorcycle Queen of Miami was more than fast enough.

Rell Sunn

1950 — 1998

Surfed competitively while on chemo. Queen of Makaha.

Audrey Sutherland

1921 — 2015

Solo-paddled the wild coasts of Hawaii and Alaska for 40 years.

Junko Taibei

1939 — 2016

First woman atop Everest, fought for women's right to climb

Lionel Terray

1921 — 1965

Hallowed conquistador of the useless

Wilfred Thesiger

1910 — 2003

First foreigner to cross Arabia's emptiest deserts

Aloha Wanderwell

1906 — 1996

Drove across Africa using bananas for axle grease and elephant fat for motor oil

Barbara Washburn

1914 — 2014

First woman atop Denali. Didn't even plan on climbing it

Bradford Washburn

1910 — 2007

Mapped Alaska from the air and climbed what he mapped