Beverly Johnson

Climbing At the age of 24, Beverly Johnson was already an established member of the Camp-4 community in Yosemite in 1971. She was part of the first all female climb of El Capitan with Sibylle Hechtel and the first woman to solo climb Dihedral wall of El Capitan over a period of 10 days in October 1978.

Johnson first met her future husband Mike Hoover in about 1967 Johnson and Hoover filmed the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. After taking off again, the helicopter developed engine trouble and crashed in Thorpe Creek Canyon, around five miles south of Lamoille. Johnson was killed and her husband Mike Hoover was critically injured in the same crash but survived. The pilot, Dave Walton, and Disney president Frank Wells were also killed in the crash.