Mount Fuji | Wikimedia CommonsWhen Hulda Crooks stood on the summit of Mount Fuji on July 24, 1987, she was 91 years old and had already spent decades proving that age had little say in what the human body could achieve. The climb made her the oldest woman to reach Japan’s highest peak, adding another milestone to a life that had already earned her the nickname “Grandma Whitney.” Long before that ascent, Crooks had developed an extraordinary habit of climbing Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States, returning to its summit 23 times between the ages of 66 and 91. According to the Los Angeles Times, her achievements attracted national attention because they came after an age when most people had long retired from strenuous outdoor pursuits. Hulda Crooks | Wikimedia CommonsShe discovered mountaineering later in life and never looked backCrooks was born in 1896 in Saskatchewan, Canada. After leaving her family's farm, she attended Pacific Union College in California before studying dietetics at the College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University. She later worked as a nutrition researcher and research assistant at Loma Linda, contributing to studies on vegetarian diets and public health. Exercise was not always central to her life. Friends recalled that serious hiking became part of her routine only after middle age, when walking in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains gradually developed into a passion for climbing. By her mid-50s, she was spending weekends on mountain trails, and by 1962, at the age of 66, she completed her first ascent of 14,505-foot Mount Whitney. According to the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Crooks eventually climbed 97 different peaks, hiked the 212-mile John Muir Trail in stages and became a familiar sight to generations of hikers throughout California’s Sierra Nevada. Twenty-three ascents of Mount Whitney earned her the name ‘Grandma Whitney’Most climbers are satisfied after reaching Mount Whitney once, but Crooks kept returning. Carrying her own backpack and maintaining a brisk pace, she climbed the mountain 23 times, astonishing hikers decades younger than herself. She stood just over five feet tall, yet regularly outpaced companions on steep alpine trails. At 70, she added jogging to her daily routine because she believed it made climbing easier, and by 80, she had walked roughly 1,200 miles in a single year. According to the Los Angeles Times, Crooks often explained that she trained every morning, rising before dawn to jog a mile, walk briskly back home and continue with strength exercises before beginning the rest of her day. Mount Fuji added an international record to an already extraordinary careerCrooks had dreamed of climbing Mount Fuji for years before finally making the trip to Japan in 1987. Her ascent attracted widespread media attention, with television crews documenting the achievement and physicians monitoring her health during the climb. Only six weeks later, she returned to California and climbed Mount Whitney for the 23rd and final time, an accomplishment she later described as a fitting way to conclude her years of serious mountaineering. According to the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, the Mount Fuji climb led ABC World News Tonight to name her its “Person of the Week,” turning the retired dietitian into an international symbol of active ageing. Mount Fuji | Wikimedia CommonsHer legacy reached far beyond the mountains she climbedIn 1990, an Act of Congress renamed Day Needle in California’s Whitney region as Crooks Peak, making her one of the few living Americans to have a mountain named in their honour. The City of Loma Linda also dedicated Hulda Crooks Park, while Loma Linda University established an award bearing her name. Crooks lived to the age of 101, remaining physically active well into her 90s and continuing to encourage others to exercise, eat well, and spend time outdoors. Her story endures because it overturned one of society’s oldest assumptions: that extraordinary adventures belong only to the young. For Hulda Crooks, some of the highest peaks in the world were still waiting long after most people believed their climbing years were over.