Mountaineering Women

“Take the woman whose usual occupation is a sedentary one,” proclaimed Mary Crawford in 1909, “whose daily life is one of routine and who is constantly giving out to others her nervous energy. Put her on the train and send her to the mountains. She is going to know herself as never before—physically, mentally, emotionally. . . .” Women have known the challenges and triumphs of mountaineering for nearly two centuries, and for nearly as long they have been writing about their accomplishments, creating a fascinating, often thrilling literature of adventure and daring. As with other aspects of women’s history, however, the literature of mountaineering women has been scattered and largely forgotten. Their stories—sometimes published under the name of a male relative, sometimes under anonymous bylines such as “a Lady”—are here recovered and collected for the first time. The women who speak to us in this book climbed on the world’s highest peaks and most difficult rock faces, from the