Laura is in the center of it, smiling, and in good strength on a spectacular day at 20,000 feet. And I'm afraid I now understand a little better what it meant to her to have survived cancer once... and why it was important to her that other people should be smart enough to be inspired once in a while. But I'm also very happy that she climbed that particular mountain for herself... for the sheer joy of attempting and accomplishing something difficult in the narrow space life granted her for such pursuits. It was a good cause. My brain may be wired oddly in that the death of a friend causes me to focus on a glacier, a twitch, Fred's crevasse, and laughing through our struggle... but it was the last great day I climbed with Laura Evans. I know that her illnesses were profound and in the eyes of some they must have defined her life, but certainly not for her team on Denali in 1996. We were lucky. We saw her beyond survival... we saw her living large. I intend to remember that. I guess it's called inspiration.

— Dave Hahn, MountainZone.com Correspondent

Evans on Aconcagua's summit Photo: Expedition Inspiration

Laura Steele Evans, founder of Expedition Inspiration Fund for Breast Cancer, who was an inspiration to thousands of people with a life-threatening illness, passed away on Tuesday October 17, 2000 of a brain tumor.

In 1989, Laura was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and underwent a bone marrow transplant resulting in an inspiring recovery from this disease. As a response to her survival and her return to the mountain climbing she so loved, Laura set aside her career in clothing design and founded Expedition Inspiration, the acclaimed assault on breast cancer, in 1995, by 17 breast cancer survivors. This successful climb of Argentina's Aconcagua (23,000') the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, was featured in a PBS documentary film showing these courageous women co-led by Laura and Peter Whittaker of Rainier Mountaineering, demonstrating the strength of breast cancer survivors while raising $2 million for medical research.

For more information on Laura Evans and the continuing work of Expedition Inspiration, go to www.expeditioninspiration.org.