Alison Hargreaves

Alison Hargreaves was introduced to mountain climbing at the age of nine and never quit. In 1993, she became the first mountain climber ever to solo (climb alone) the six classic north faces of the Alps in a single season, climbing the deadly Eiger while heavily pregnant. Two years later, she reached the peak of Mount Everest without either sherpas or bottled oxygen, both of which were assumed to be absolutely necessary by most climbers.

It may have been that this sort of behavior contributed to the idea some had that Hargreaves was "too" ambitious. Nevertheless, though she died in a terrible storm when she was only 32 years old, while coming back down after climbing K2 in Pakistan, her favorite saying was, "One day as a tiger is better than a thousand days as a sheep." No in-your-face woman -- and certainly not Hargreaves -- could ever be said to be a sheep.