Lisa Arnbrister Barbash today releases Four Women and a Mountain: Legends and Legacies of the Sierra, a historical nonfiction portrait that brings to life the stories of four women whose courage, resilience, and love shaped the culture and character of the Olympic Valley/ Lake Tahoe region. Drawing on interviews, diary entries, and local archives, the book reframes women’s history by centering Sandy Poulsen, Jeanne Reuter, Neata Arnbrister, and Sherry McConkey — women remembered less as footnotes and more as architects of the mountain community’s soul.

Four Women and a Mountain spans four eras and four distinct approaches to living in the Sierra: resilience, stewardship, courage, and care. Barbash crafts a mosaic of personal narratives that shows how each woman left an enduring imprint on a landscape that has itself existed for millions of years. Rather than treating these figures as mere background to a famous mountain, the book explores how their choices—public and private—braided into village life, altered local institutions, and continue to echo in the ways residents recall their past.

Through firsthand interviews, private diary passages, and oral histories, Barbash builds intimate portraits that move between triumph and heartbreak. Readers will meet Sandy Poulsen, the first lady of Olympic Valley, a community organizer  and land owner whose persistence reshaped local community efforts; Jeanne Reuter,  wife of Dick Reuter, an avalanche hunter at Palisades Tahoe and Kirkwood, CA, and an educator who reimagined schooling for mountain families; Neata Arnbrister, whose family roots and personal archives reveal snowboarding’s origins and Olympic introduction and later prisoners’ rights; and Sherry McConkey, from the shadows of South African apartheid segregation  to the heart of community leadership and an advocate whose steady presence anchored local activism and a nonprofit that supports community efforts. The narrative emphasizes how these women refused to “sit down, shut up, or step aside,” transforming ordinary acts into durable legacies.

“Place is not only geology,” Barbash says. “It is made by people who choose to stay, to fight, and to care. These four women taught their neighbors how to belong to the Sierra — not as owners of a view, but as stewards of a living community.” The quote highlights the book’s central claim: residence becomes meaningful when it produces stories, institutions, and values that outlast one lifetime.

Four Women and a Mountain offers both a richly textured local history and a timely reflection on how women shape public life through everyday courage. It will appeal to readers interested in regional history, women’s memoirs, and community-building, as well as to Sierra Nevada residents seeking a deeper understanding of the place they call home.

 

“Four Women and a Mountain: Legends and Legacies of the Sierras” is available for purchase online at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.