Kelly J. Faughnan is a graduate student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and discovered the joys of climbing in 1992. Since then she has climbed throughout Europe, Scandinavia, South America, Canada, and the United States. She has worked as a mountaineering instructor for Outward Bound in the Sierra Nevada. Kelly also co-organized the 1999 UMASS Alpamayo Expedition with Bjarne Holmes. She has been a Wilderness EMT and is currently certified as a Wilderness First Responder.