Brian Dickinson

Brian Dickinson served for six years as a US Navy Aviation Rescue Swimmer before he moved to the Pacific Northwest to earn his MBA and pursue his passion for extreme sports and mountain climbing. He has climbed in expeditions on the highest peaks of the seven continents, including Mount Everest, with the majority of climbs in the Cascade Range, near his home. Brian, his wife, JoAnna, and their children, Jordan and Emily, live in Snoqualmie, Washington.

He is the author of Blind Descent: Surviving alone and blind on the summit of Mt. Everest. (Tyndale House Publisher, 2014) and Calm in the Chaos: True Tales from Elite U.S. Navy Aviation Rescue Swimmers. (Lyons Press, 2024).

Person wearing sunglasses and winter gear sits on a snowy mountain with colorful prayer flags in the background.

A helicopter hovers over the ocean as a person is lowered into the water, creating a circular ripple effect around them.

Smart Skills

How elite rescue swimmers stay calm in life-or-death situations

“Amid the chaos, he remembered his life being eerily calm as he knew it wasn’t if, but when they would be hacked to pieces. He just kept kicking.”