Brooke Whipple may not have graduated from Montcalm Community College, but her experiences here helped guide her to where she is today. 

“MCC helped me figure out what I did and didn’t want out of life,” she said. 

Whipple attended MCC from 1989 through 1991 and studied liberal arts. She was just shy of an associate degree when she left the institution.  

“It was not too big and felt accessible as a first step out of high school,” she said. 

After her time at MCC, where she often skipped class to play ping pong, she headed to Yellowstone National Park to work at Old Faithful for the summer. She went to Vail, Colo., after that to work as a lift operator and then she ended up in Montana working as a wildland firefighter. 

The pivotal moment in her life came when she traveled to Alaska. 

“I bought a one-way ticket to Alaska with no job, no place to live, no plan – only my backpack and $200. I bought a bike, lived in my tent all summer and worked at a bed and breakfast and a sporting goods shop in Homer. It all worked out!” 

In 1997, she headed back to college at Ferris State University where she earned a bachelor of science degree in Outdoor/Adventure Recreation Management. 

She married her husband, David, in 1998. They have two children, Belle and Mick. 

Since then, she has been on all sorts of outdoor adventures.  

She lived in Alaska without running water from 1999 to 2010. In 2015, she appeared on the National Geographic Channel’s docu-series, “Yukon River Run,” where she helped build a giant log raft to live and travel on. 

In 2016, she and her husband, David, appeared on season 4 of the History Channel’s show “ALONE.” They were dropped off on a remote island just north of Vancouver Island in Canada. They survived alone for 49 days. All the filming was self-shot as there was no film crew. 

Also in 2016, she started her own YouTube channel, “Girl in the Woods.” She now has over half a million subscribers. She talked about how she found success on the platform. 

“By committing to the process, continually learning and never giving up,” Whipple said. “When I started, I promised myself I wouldn’t quit. I love the freedom of expression, the art of putting together the visuals, music, and story to create something worth watching.” 

In 2017, she again appeared on “ALONE” for season 5. This time she was dropped in the northern remote regions of Mongolia. She survived alone for 28 days. 

No matter what adventures she’s chasing, she has always lived by the same motto: “Get outside and get happy!” 

She thanks God for all she has been given and experienced. 

“The Lord has blessed me mightily,” Whipple said. “He gets all the credit.” 

She splits her time between Reed City, Michigan and Fairbanks, Alaska. 

“Despite being a public figure on YouTube, I really like spending time alone,” she said. 

Whipple has written two books about her time in Alaska. She also teaches outdoor survival and shelter building to children, youth and adults.  

“I’m a sucker for wild, beautiful landscapes and the flicker of a fire,” she wrote on her website. “The outdoors is a powerful force in my life - it heals me, challenges me, calms me, scares me. But most of all I want to share the inspiration of it all.” 

Media inquiries, please contact:

Shelly Springborn
Director of Communications and Public Relations
shellys@montcalm.edu
989-560-0833