Hubert A. Allen, Jr. was born in New Mexico, attended Brown University and graduate school at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He has been climbing since teen years. In his early 20s he climbed with Joe Simpson (Touching the Void) in the Alps. Hubert and was a co-author of climbing accidents in Yosemite Valley study. While living in Malawi, Africa, Hubert made the first American ascent of the massive, 5,500 foot wall on Chambe Peak's West Face. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was a major public health figure in New Mexico media and as an expert witness battling the disease. Diamond Summer is a historical climbing fiction based on the summer of 1979 that he spent in Boulder, Colorado.
