All Profiles

Bud and Temple Abernathy

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

Carl Akeley

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

Jaime de Angulo

Wild anarchist homesteader and feral trickster

Abigail Becker

Open-water life saver who couldn't swim.

Gertrude Benham

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

Peter Bird

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

Walt Blackadar

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

Ada Blackjack

Single mom became an Arctic castaway

Tom Blake

Taught the world what it meant to be a surfer.

Louise Boulaz

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

Jim Bridwell

Paisley shirts, big walls, and a lifetime of Yosemite legend.

Freddie S. Chapman

Alpine climber and WWII saboteur spent three years behind enemy lines

Millican Dalton

Cave-dwelling, chain-smoking professor of adventure

Ann Davison

First woman to sail solo across the Atlantic

Glen Dawson

Sierra pioneer led climbs in sneakers when everyone else wore boots

Aleksander Doba

Kayaked across the Atlantic. He was 70.

Rosalie Edge

Socialite turned hawk defender turned conscience of American conservation.

John Fairfax

Wrestled sharks. Rowed oceans. Did a little gunfighting.

Al Faussett

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

Don Flickinger

Parachuted into jungle to rescue crashed WWII airmen

Tom Frost

The photographer and engineer behind climbing's golden age

Emma Gatewood

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

Tommy Godwin

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

Walter Greaves

Vegetarian. One arm. Rode a bicycle farther than anyone

Matthew Henson

100% polar explorer badass.

Maurice Herzog

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

Clare Marie Hodges

First female national park ranger—Yosemite, 1918

Buzz Holmstrom

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

Alexander Von Humboldt

The man who invented nature

Amy Johnson

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

Beverly Johnson

Changed what women could do on the big walls of Yosemite

Vera Komarkova

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

Jerzy Kukuczka

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

Anne LaBastille

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

Katie Lee

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

Hilary Lister

Quadriplegic. Sailed around Britain by sipping and puffing

Jeff Lowe

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

Hamish MacInnes

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

Beryl Markham

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

Andrew McAuley

Came heartbreakingly close to kayaking across the Tasman Sea

Amir Mehdi

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

Enid Michael

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

Bernard Moitessier

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

Natalia Molchanova

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

Dervla Murphy

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

Poppa Neutrino

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

Jack O’Neill

Invented the wetsuit and made the endless summer possible.

Wiley Post

One-eyed felon aviator record-breaker

Wanda Rutkiewicz

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

Marcel Rémy

Still climbing at 99.

Sanmao

Desert explorer who inspired millions of Asian women to adventure.

William Sheppard

The Black Livingstone — explored the heart of Africa

Ang Rita Sherpa

'Snow Leopard' climbed Everest without oxygen ten times

Eric Shipton

His style and whims shaped half a century of mountaineering

Van Buren Sisters

Suffragist motorcycle pioneers who rode across America in 1916

Marion Smith

Explored more caves than any human in history

Bob and Ira Spring

The badasses who chronicled Washington's wilderness

Don Starkell

Paddled 75,000 miles before he found his limita

Alfonsina Strada

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

Bessie Stringfield

The Motorcycle Queen of Miami was more than fast enough.

Rell Sunn

Surfed competitively while on chemo. Queen of Makaha.

Audrey Sutherland

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

Junko Taibei

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

Lionel Terray

Hallowed conquistador of the useless

Wilfred Thesiger

First foreigner to cross Arabia's emptiest deserts

Aloha Wanderwell

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

Barbara Washburn

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

Bradford Washburn

Mapped Alaska from the air and climbed what he mapped