Ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers skied off the summit of Mount Everest into history. 

DesLauriers is the first person to ski from the so-called Seven Summits, the highest peak on every continent. Her 2006 descent of Everest capped a string of firsts: She was the first woman to ski the Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica, and Mt. Aspiring in New Zealand. She also made the first female solo ski descent of Grand Teton in Wyoming.

A two-time Freeskiing World Tour champion, National Geographic named her an Adventurer of the Year in 2015. DesLauriers was formally inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame this week, following her election in 2019.

Kit DesLauriers is the mother of two daughters with her husband, Rob DesLauriers, whose family runs the Bolton Valley ski area in Vermont. She is the author of a memoir, Higher Love: Skiing the Seven Summits, which was reissued last year. She is a member of The North Face global athlete team, the board of the Alaska Wilderness League and the riders team of the climate action group Protect Our Winters. I spoke with her from her home in Jackson, Wyoming.