Alan Arnette climbs, coaches, talks, and writes. He advocates for Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers, and researchers at every opportunity. As Alan saw his mom, Ida, go through the Alzheimer’s journey, he said it took her life and changed him forever. So after a 30-year career in management roles with Hewlett-Packard, he took early retirement in 2007 to oversee the care of Ida, and his life purpose became serving as an Alzheimer’s Advocate.
At the beginning of his career, he focused on work but at age 38 discovered his true passion was climbing the world’s highest peaks. He has completed over 37 major expeditions, including Mt. Everest in 2011, and K2 on his 58th birthday in 2014. Living in Colorado, he has summited all 58 of the 14,000-foot mountains. In total, over 225 times, including repeats, which is a surprise to his friends and family in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was born.
Alan shares his experiences with his three million followers on social media channels and alanarnette.com. In addition, global media outlets like CNN, BBC, FOX, and Outside regularly seek Alan’s comments on mountaineering and Alzheimer’s events. Outside called him “one of the world’s most respected chroniclers of Everest.”
His innovative Alzheimer’s awareness and fundraising projects have included climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents in under a year; summiting K2, the world’s most challenging high-altitude mountain, at age 58, thus setting an American record.
The Fort Collins resident uses each climb as a fundraising tool for Alzheimer’s research. He thus far has reached over 60 million people and raised nearly half a million dollars for research.