When Kit DesLauriers skied Mt. Everest in 2006, she became the first person in the world to ski the Seven Summits, meaning she skied from the summit of the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. Beyond the Seven Summits, Kit has climbed and skied first descents in Alaska’s Brooks Range, including its highest peak, won back to back World Freeskiing Championships, and was named as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for merging science and ski mountaineering on a 2014 mapping expedition to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Most recently, Kit was elected into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019.
The 50-year-old mother of two lives in Jackson, WY and is also the first female to solo climb and ski the Grand Teton and Gannet Peak (WY’s highest). During her 7 Summits project Kit became the first female to make a complete ski descent of Vinson Massif, the highest in Antarctica and made the first female ski descent of the Polish Glacier on Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. She also holds a first female ski descent of Mt Aspiring in New Zealand.
While Kit’s ski mountaineering resume is deep, she didn’t grow up on skis. In her memoir, Higher Love: Skiing the Seven Summits, Kit writes about her life choices including raising a wolf, moving to the mountains (which she did immediately after graduating from University of Arizona), and choosing to focus on gaining the skills she’d need to ski anywhere in the world. Her first expedition with The North Face was in 1999 to the highest mountain in Siberia, Mt Belukah, where she met her husband to be, Rob DesLauriers. The next year she moved from Telluride, CO to the Teton Range in WY and married Rob, himself a former The North Face athlete. It was after her win at the 2004 US Freeskiing Nationals in Snowbird, UT that Kit met Dick Bass, the first person to climb the Seven Summits, when she formed the idea to climb and ski the highest peaks in the world.
A member of The North Face Global Athlete Team since 2005, Kit remains at the forefront of ski mountaineering. In addition to raising two daughters (as a family they were featured in Warren Miller’s 2019 film #Timeless), she volunteers her time and energy to protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which she calls ‘the most beautiful place I’ve ever been”. Kit is a member of the Board of Directors for Alaska Wildneress League and has just completed a six-year term as a Director for the American Alpine Club. She also donates her time as a member of the Protect Our Winters Riders Alliance.
Why TNF?
Kit is one of the world’s top ski mountaineers, credited with a list of first descents, including the Seven Summits. She is on the American Alpine Club Board of Directors, the Alaska Wilderness League Board of Directors and part of the Protect Our Winters Riders Alliance.
Accomplishments:
- US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, Class of 2019
- First person to ski from all Seven Summits
- First woman to ski from the summit of Mt Everest
- First female ski descent of Vinson Massif, Antarctica
- First ski descent of the highest peak in the Brooks Range (AK), Mt Isto
- First female solo ski descents of Grand Teton and Gannett Peak, highest in Wyoming
- First female ski descent Mt. Aspiring, New Zealand
- 2-time Freeskiing World Tour Women’s Champion
- National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, 2015
- Author of Higher Love: Skiing the Seven Summits
- Featured in Warren Miller’s #Timeless (2019)
Sponsors:
- Blizzard
- Tecnica
- Dynafit
- Smith
- GU
- HANAH
- Momentous
- Voke