Mary Applewhite Ingersoll
Mary Applewhite Ingersoll was born in Denver Colorado, and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Mary graduated from Evergreen State college in 1985 with a degree in Natural Resources. As Mary ventured into the profession of National Park management, she was not convinced that spending her days in a guard tower was how she wanted to be involved with the mountains and nature.
Mary went to work for R.E.I. in the late Eighties while going to massage school which has turned into another lifetime career. She met spirited climbers and breathed in the strong Northwest attitudes towards traditional mountaineering. She learned that being on the glaciers of the Northwest is where she was the happiest!
After going on her first summit climb of Rainier under the tutelage of well known Northwest climber, Carl Dittrich, Mary quickly showed unmatched power and speed when it came to ascending the long, unrelenting glaciers. In 1993, Mary married Northwest mountain guide and professional climber, Doug Ingersoll. At this point Mary’s commitment to her family and climbing turned into a full career as a mountain guide in the Northwest.
Mary is well known in the mountains for her everlasting smile that was really a projection of her spirit that rose out of her passion for Northwest climbing. Mary’s work ethic towards guiding in mountains was as unyielding as her endurance and speed–which was hard to follow. Northwest climbers would often use Mary as the mark, or high bar, when it came to referencing power and speed. Mary’s lean frame and profound stride would accomplish blazing speed times such as Paradise to Camp Muir in under one hour and thirty minutes!
She was known for climbing enchainments of volcanos in single pushes. Some of Mary’s enchainments involved Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St Helens in a single push! Mary’s friend and climbing partner, Steve Edquist, once said “you can climb and hang out with Mary–you just have to be willing not to sleep!”
Mary has created a love affair with climbing all over North America and the West coast. Mary now resides with her husband, Doug, in Tahoe City, California and you can always find Mary out on a trail or at Donner summit climbing with friends and family. Mary will be celebrating twenty years of climbing this year and, as far as I can see, she is only getting stronger and better at her craft of climbing!
