Melissa Arnot

Melissa Arnot grew up just outside of Glacier National Park in Whitefish, Montana. After college, she started living off her car to save money and climb mountains. She first climbed Mount Rainier in 2001 and called it a "watershed moment". Arnot began teaching wilderness medicine in 2002 and began guiding on Mount Rainier with Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. in 2004. In 2006 she was a senior guide.

Since 2001, she has climbed Rainier more than 90 times. She is Wilderness EMT certified and teaches Wilderness EMT courses for Remote Medical International. In 2008, she joined Jeff Dossett and David Morton on Everest Team Inspi(RED) to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and Microsoft and Dell products supporting Product Red. In 2010, she led a celebrity climb on Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness about access to clean water. The effort, Summit on the Summit, included actors Emile Hirsch, Jessica Biel and Isabel Lucas, musicians Kenna, Lupe Fiasco and Santigold, as well as various scientists and activists, and aired as part of a television special . MTV. In 2013, she helped defuse tensions between three European mountaineers and a group of around 100 Sherpas.

His attempts to summit Everest in 2014 and 2015 were disrupted by avalanches on Mount Everest. In 2016, she became the second American woman to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and the first to survive the descent after reaching the summit without supplemental oxygen. another American Francys Arsentiev reached the summit without supplemental oxygen in 1998 but died during the descent.

She is currently sponsored by Eddie Bauer and was one of the original six mountain guides, including Peter Whittaker, Ed Viesturs, Dave Hahn, Seth Waterfall and Chad Peele, who developed products for the "First Ascent" brand. and continues to participate in product development and testing. She is also sponsored by Whittaker Mountaineering, a retail store based in Ashford, Washington.