Melissa Arnot

Melissa Arnot Reid born December 18 1983 is an American mountaineer She has climbed to the top of Mount Everest six times Melissa Arnot grew up just outside of Glacier National Park in Whitefish Montana After college she started living off her car to save money and climb mountains She first climbed Mount Rainier in 2001 and called it a watershed moment Arnot began teaching wilderness medicine in 2002 and began guiding on Mount Rainier with Rainier Mountaineering Inc in 2004 In 2006 she was a senior guide Since 2001 she has climbed Rainier more than 90 times She is Wilderness EMT certified and teaches Wilderness EMT courses for Remote Medical International In 2008 she joined Jeff Dossett and David Morton on Everest Team InspiRED to promote HIVAIDS awareness and Microsoft and Dell products supporting Product Red In 2010 she led a celebrity climb on Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness about access to clean water The effort Summit on the Summit included actors Emile Hirsch Jessica Biel and Isabel Lucas musicians Kenna Lupe Fiasco and Santigold as well as various scientists and activists and aired as part of a television special MTV In 2013 she helped defuse tensions between three European mountaineers and a group of around 100 Sherpas His attempts to summit Everest in 2014 and 2015 were disrupted by avalanches on Mount Everest In 2016 she became the second American woman to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and the first to survive the descent after reaching the summit without supplemental oxygen another American Francys Arsentiev reached the summit without supplemental oxygen in 1998 but died during the descent She is currently sponsored by Eddie Bauer and was one of the original six mountain guides including Peter Whittaker Ed Viesturs Dave Hahn Seth Waterfall and Chad Peele who developed products for the First Ascent brand and continues to participate in product development and testing She is also sponsored by Whittaker Mountaineering a retail store based in Ashford Washington