Biography of one of the most colorful, some might say eccentric, people the Canadian West has thrown out who also happens to be a climber. At a time when most men are thinking of retirement from strenuous activities, Don was busy setting records: the first person to climb all the 11,000 foot peaks in the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains and the oldest person to climb Mount Logan, Canada's highest mountain.

Apart from Don's climbing achievements, for which he received the Banff Mountain Festival's Summit of Excellence Award in 1990, Don is renowned for his idiosyncrasies which the author and Don's friends have documented in hilarious detail.

Kathy Calvert grew up in the Canadian Rockies. In 1974 she became one of the first female national park wardens in Canada; in 1977 she was a member of the first all-women expedition to Mount Logan and in 1989 was on the first all-women ski traverse of the Columbia Mountains from the Bugaboos to Rogers Pass. She is the author of three books: Don Forest: Quest for the Summits (RMB 2003), Guardians of the Peaks: Mountain Rescue in the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains (RMB 2006) and June Mickle: One Woman's Life in the Foothills and Mountains of Western Canada (RMB 2015). She and her husband, Dale Portman, live in Cochrane, Alberta.

Kathy Calvert's profile page