Colorado Snowsports Museum’s Through the Lens series focuses on Vail Valley women who climbed Everest

The Colorado Snowsports Museum this week put out the following press release on its Through the Lens programming series featuring women from the Vail Valley talking about climbing Mount Everest:

The Colorado Snowsports Museum is in the thick of their popular Through the Lens programming series – going virtual this year due to COVID-19. For their third presentation in the series, they invite women from the Vail Valley to talk about their experiences climbing Mount Everest. This pre-recorded talk sheds light on these women’s stories and what this feat is like from the inception of the idea to decompressing after the climb.

Are you thinking about climbing Mount Everest or looking to push your limits, even on a local scale exploring Colorado’s great outdoors? This presentation is for you. Ellen Miller, Dr. Tracee Metcalfe, and Kristine Chalk share an insider’s experience when it comes to training for and summiting big mountains. Tune in to learn more about their inspiring journeys.

Ellen Miller teams up with the Colorado Snowsports Museum again this year, after her sold out presentation at the Museum last year. Her story is not often told, but inspiring to many. Ellen is among the world’s most elite mountaineers. Her high altitude accomplishments are many: she was the first North American woman to summit Mount Everest (29,035 feet) from the north side (Tibet); the first American woman to summit Everest from both sides; the second woman and first American woman to climb Nuptse (25,791 feet); and to complete the ‘Everest Trilogy’ – successful summits of Mt. Everest, Lhotse (27,940 feet), and Nuptse in the Himalayas. During this presentation, Ellen Miller interviews Vail locals: Dr. Tracee Metcalfe and Kristine Chalk.

Dr. Tracee Metcalfe grew up in Southern California. Soon after high school, she moved to Breckenridge, Colorado in 1992 to work and ski. Later she attended Colorado College and CU Medical School. In 2006 after completing an Internal Medicine Residency in Seattle, Tracee returned to Colorado’s mountains, taking a position at Vail Health. Over the years, Tracee has climbed all of the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado and all the ranked 13,000-foot peaks in the Gore Range. She enjoys spending time working as a high-altitude doctor on expeditions whenever time allows.  She has worked as a doctor on Denali in 2012 and 2013 and was able to summit in 2012. She has also worked as a climbing doctor on numerous 8000-meter peaks in Nepal, including Manaslu, Makalu, Cho Oyu, and later Everest.  In 2016 while working as the Himex Team Climbing doctor, she summited Everest with her team on May 13th. Tracee continues to work as a hospitalist at Vail Health. She is planning to return to Nepal this spring to climb Kangchenjunga, the world’s 3rd highest peak. 

Furthermore, Kristine Chalk has been living and playing in the mountains of Vail since 2002 when she moved here to teach at Vail Mountain School. Kristine climbed Denali in 2007 and began the goal of climbing the Seven Summits. For her honeymoon, she and her husband summited Mount Everest on May 25, 2010. Kristine completed climbing the Colorado 14ers in 2011. She also completed the Seven Summits with Mt. Vinson, Antarctica in December 2013 – becoming the 18th American woman to do so. Kristine has taught at Red Sandstone Elementary since 2008, teaching 4th & 5th grade, ESL, and currently teaching Art.  Kristine and her husband consider their 8th summit – as parents – more challenging than any mountain but also more rewarding. Their daughter was born in 2014 and their son in 2018.

Join the Colorado Snowsports Museum in celebrating Colorado snow sports by telling stories that educate and inspire others to seek adventure. Their “Through the Lens: Vail Women Climb Everest” presentation is free with a suggested donation that can be made here: snowsportsmuseum.org/ways-to-support. At the time of the event, the recording can be accessed on their home page: snowsportsmuseum.org. It will also be shared on their social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube) at 3pm on January 27. If you can’t make the premier at 3pm, the recording will be available for you to watch at your convenience on their website home page snowsportsmuseum.org