BSNC congratulates shareholders Oliver (Tusagvik) Hoogendorn and Wilson (Mungnak) Hoogendorn on receiving the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Walter Soboleff “Warriors of Light” Award. Named for the late Dr. Walter Soboleff, this award recognizes individuals who enrich our spirits and unify and uplift our people. Oliver and Wilson were nominated by BSNC and recognized at the 2023 AFN Convention in Anchorage, AK.
Earlier this year, Oliver and Wilson Hoogendorn, from Nome, won the survival competition reality series “Race to Survive: Alaska.” The show followed eight teams of elite athletes on a challenging journey across the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness. Without food or shelter, contestants fended for themselves and survived off the land. Over the course of six different race legs, spanning 46 days and 300 square miles, the teams traversed some of the world’s most extraordinary and harshest landscapes. To learn more about “Race to Survive: Alaska,” visit https://www.nbc.com/race-to-survive-alaska.
In the May 2019 climbing season, Oliver and Wilson were the first to summit Denali, which stands at 20,310 feet and is the highest mountain in North America. This year the brothers biked the Pan-American highway. They took a side trip to climb Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere, with a summit elevation of 22,838 feet.
Oliver is a commercial fisherman and Wilson is a diver for an offshore gold mine in Nome. Their parents are Brenna Outwater and Willy Hoogendorn and their grandparents are Martha Outwater, BJ Bains-Jordan and former BSNC Board Director Homer E. Hoogendorn. They have two sisters and four brothers. Congratulations, Tusagvik and Mungnak!