Born in 1920, June Mickle grew up among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her mother and her stepfather, Tip Johnson, a renowned cowboy and horse trainer. As the only child of a single mother, June’s early years were marked by loneliness but also by remarkable family ties and an uncanny ability to live in harmony with both ranching and mountain environments. She grew into a strongly determined woman capable of meeting the challenges of being an artist, guide, outfitter, businesswoman, wife and parent, and one of the more important, even legendary figures in the development of backcountry adventure in the Rockies.

June Mickle: One Woman's Life in the Foothills and Mountains of Western Canada is the inspiring memoir of an unconventional life fully lived. It is the story of people coping with family struggles, living among the splendour of a mountain landscape, and carving out an existence that held both tremendous hardships and enduring rewards.

Kathy Calvert grew up in the Canadian Rockies. In 1974 she became one of the first female national park wardens in Canada; in 1977 she was a member of the first all-women expedition to Mount Logan and in 1989 was on the first all-women ski traverse of the Columbia Mountains from the Bugaboos to Rogers Pass. She is the author of three books: Don Forest: Quest for the Summits (RMB 2003), Guardians of the Peaks: Mountain Rescue in the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains (RMB 2006) and June Mickle: One Woman's Life in the Foothills and Mountains of Western Canada (RMB 2015). She and her husband, Dale Portman, live in Cochrane, Alberta.

Kathy Calvert's profile page

The author’s own life as a park warden, skier, and adventurer resonates in many ways with Mickle’s. Calvert’s recounting of Mickle’s adventures displays her admiration for a woman who enthusiastically embraced challenge and adversity to create a life all her own.—Karine Duhamel, Canada's History Magazine