Anchorage’s Dolly Lefever didn’t set out to climb all of the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, but that’s exactly what she did.
Dolly Lefever
Lefever made mountaineering magic in 1993 when she reached the top of Australia’s Mount Kosciuszko to become the first American woman and third woman ever to conquer the famed Seven Summits.
“We’re excited to announce the Class of 2018 and induct them into the Hall in April,” said Robinson. “This class represents our state’s diverse sports culture well and is a group we can very proud of.”
Virgil Hooe
Lefever’s other six summits included Everest [Asia], Aconcagua [South America], Denali [North America], Kilimanjaro [Africa], Elbrus [Europe] and Vinson [Antarctica].
Hooe, of Anchorage, is an Alaska volleyball pioneer and record-setting high school coach with 11 Class 4A state championships, including a record 10 at Service High School, in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
In all, Hooe won more than 400 matches, 14 region tournament titles and 17 regular-season conference championships.
In 1983, he founded the Midnight Sun Volleyball club team that has helped dozens of players land college scholarships.
Hooe was the head coach at West from 1976 to 1981 and at Service from 1982 to 2003 before he joined South in 2004 as a volunteer assistant. Years later, he served as a volunteer assistant at the University of Alaska.
Synonymous with volleyball in Alaska, his legacy impacted hundreds of teen girls as he single-handedly changed the face of the sport through his leadership, direction and mentoring.
Holly Brooks
Brooks, of Anchorage, is a former U.S. Ski Team member who twice competed in the Olympics and was part of the first Americans to podium in a 4x5K World Cup relay race.
She skied at Whitman College but never qualified for a national meet until she joined the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center in 2006. She took a job as a coach and it changed her life.
Brooks quickly earned her stripes as a Sourdough and developed into an elite athlete. By 2009 she had won her first national championship, one of nine victories that winter that propelled her to the 2010 Olympics.
She went on to post seven top-10 World Cup finishes, capture a pair of national championships and secure a second Olympic spot in 2014. Other career highlights included victories in the 50K Tour of Anchorage and 55K American Birkebeiner marathon.
Brooks was also a prestigious mountain runner and captured multiple titles in some of Alaska’s most distinctive races such as Mount Marathon, Bird Ridge and Lost Lake.
The Arctic Winter Games were founded in 1969 with the help of Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel.
Since then, the Games have been held on two dozen occasions to focus on the athletes from Alaska, Canada, Russia and Greenland.
The 2018 Games will be the 25th edition.
Alaska has hosted the Games six times, most recently in Fairbanks in 2014.