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CORVALLIS - Buried by an avalanche, pelted with ice missiles and left stranded and alone for three days by a storm, Corvallis mountaineer Heidi Howkins still struggled up Kanchenjunga, becoming the first woman to reach the base of the summit pyramid of the world's third highest mountain.

Howkins will share her adventures in a presentation called "Passages in Ice" that begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Oregon State University's LaSells Stewart Center.

"Passages in Ice" will include a slide show of Howkins' May ascent of the 28,146-foot Himalayan peak. The presentation is sponsored by OSU's Department of Recreational Sports and is free and open to the public.

Howkins was a member of the 1996 U.S. Himalayan Team, which made an alpine-style ascent of the southwest ridge of Gasherbrum II (26,469 feet) just northeast of Mt. Everest.

Howkins cites her first climbing experience as Yosemite's Cathedral Range in 1989. She moved to Corvallis in 1994 and continued her climbing on such peaks as Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson in the Oregon Cascades.