Team Captain of the First American Women’s Everest Expedition and Groundbreaking Polar Adventurer
Alison Levine is no stranger to risk-taking. She has survived sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, sudden avalanches, and a career on Wall Street – all without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Surprisingly, Levine was born with a life-threatening heart condition that precluded most demanding physical activities. As a teenager, her health was so unstable that she was not even allowed to do such basic things as drive a car or walk up stairs. But 13 years after her initial diagnosis she had surgery that changed her life – and climbing stairs soon gave way to climbing mountains, a passion she continued to pursue despite her initial health setbacks.
Over the years as she continued to climb the corporate ladder, Levine also pushed her limits on the world’s highest peaks and soon became one of the most experienced female mountaineers in the country. She has climbed peaks on every continent, served as the team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, and skied across the Arctic Circle to the geographic North Pole. In January 2008, she made history as the first American to complete a 600-mile traverse from west Antarctica to the South Pole following the route of legendary explorer Reinhold Messner. Levine completed this arduous journey on skis while hauling 150 pounds of her gear and supplies in a sled harnessed to her waist. Her success in extreme environments is noteworthy given she suffers from a neurological disease that causes the arteries that feed her fingers and toes to collapse in cold weather, leaving her at extreme risk for frostbite.