Video and Scholarship celebrate the life of Liz Daley

On September 29, 2014, the AMGA guide and professional climber and snowboarder Liz Daley lost her life in an avalanche in Argentine Patagonia, while descending Cerro Vespignani, close to Fitz Roy. Originally from Tacoma, Washington, she was 29 at the time of her passing. It was a loss felt deeply within the guiding and mountain-sport communities.

Daley began snowboarding at age 10, and had accumulated many split-board descents—including some first descents— both in her home mountains of the Pacific Northwest (Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. Shuksan, and others) and on the steep aiguilles in the Mont Blanc massif above Chamonix, France. She also guided for the American Alpine Institute, leading backcountry and volcano ski and split-boarding trips, as well as rock-climbing and mountaineering trips in the North Cascades.

Her friends Nick Kalisz and Davide de Masi have put together a moving video celebrating her life in the mountains. In addition, the AMGA, in collaboration with Eddie Bauer, has set up the Liz Daley Scholarship, to help aspiring women guides with financial support for their coursework, This year’s recipient is Karen Bockel; stay tuned to the blog to learn more about how Bockel’s course went in a future scholarship report.