Sharon with fellow Everest summiteers Laurie Skreslet and Pat Morrow. 2007.

Sharon Wood is a certified alpine guide living in Canmore, Alberta. The daughter of a RCAF pilot, she grew up in Vancouver and made her first technical climb on Sky Pilot, north of the city, when she was 12.

In her late teens, she moved to Banff and, later, Field, British Columbia, where she took a variety of jobs to support her climbing pursuits. There she met climbers who encouraged her passion for mountain life — many of them went on to become her colleagues on the Everest ’86 expedition. Others were on Canada’s ’82 Everest expedition.

Sharon Wood, Everest summit. 1986.

In May 1986, Sharon became the sixth woman to reach Everest’s summit and the only one to do it on a new route. Despite several attempts, no other team has repeated the North Face route she and Dwayne Congdon established.

After her return from Everest, Sharon became a successful motivational speaker. She has two sons and continues to guide clients on mountain treks.

She is a gifted and passionate writer who made her contribution to Everest: High Expectations at the invitation of lead author Pat Morrow. He felt that her 1986 expedition had completed the vision that his team had failed to fulfill four years earlier. Sharon is working on a biography of her climbing life.