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University of Calgary

An Easy Day for a Lady:

A History of Women’s Climbing Literature

Sydney Stokoe

ENGL 503.30-01

For: Harry Vandervlist

December 15, 2014

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Climbing and adventure writing is a gateway for the general population to experience the challenge and joy of outdoor sports from the comfort of their own homes. From the climbing memoirs of Conrad Kain, Wade Davis and John Krakauer, to the outdoor tales of Bill Bryson and Sid Marty, the stories and characters inspire people to go outside and follow in the footsteps of the authors. These books hold the history of the struggle and perseverance that one needs in the mountains, they allow readers of all walks of life to put themselves in the adventurer’s shoes and feel, if only for brief moment, what it feels like to push the limits of possibility. The body of authors producing adventure literature, until recently, has been almost entirely male. While the historical record shows women have been a part of the climbing community for over 200 years, it was not until recently, that the full history of female mountaineers has been Acknowledge and published.

Representation in media is an important issue that is being discussed across mainstream and alternative media right now. From Hollywood movies, to videogame journalism, the exclusion of women has been a problem that has garnered attention. This is true also for the adventure sport community. The majority of big name climbers in film festivals, and the vast majority of winners of prestigious adventure writing awards are men. Even in our modern era, the voices of mountain women are not being heard at the same volume as those of their male counterparts.

Given that over 40% of the modern climbing community is female, we should expect to see a larger number of female climbing writers. However it is important to remember that climbing, like any subculture, does not exist within a vacuum. The social forces at play in general societies are also at play in the climbing subculture. There is no denying that throughout history, the experiences of women have been subject to strong 3 social biases. This translates into a reduced numbers of works being produced by female writers, and into less public awareness of the ascents being made by female climbers.

Women’s climbing history is largely reflective of the period in which they lived. Women dealt with the same struggles in education and the workforce as they did in climbing. As the nature of society evolved, so did the nature of climbing.

The first record of a woman climbing a large mountain was in 1808, when Marie

Paradis summited Mount Blanc, carried to the top of the mountain by her guides. She did not write about her ascent except in letters to family. In the early days of women’s climbing, documentation and publication was done primarily by men, many of whom stripped the names of the female climbers from the document, or reduced them to initials removing their gender from the article altogether (Birkett, 25). It was not until the later part of the 19th century that women began to gain traction in the climbing world, running their own expeditions, and producing published works. This coincided with the emergence of the suffrage movement, which many female climbers were involved with.

The fight for suffrage came at a time when the majority of women, particularly those born to wealthy families, did not work outside the home. The upper classes had greater accessibility to education and greater leisure time. During the Victorian era, climbing was an activity of science and the leisure class. Climbing in Europe was a white-collar activity, and large expeditions to Asia or South America were undertaken in the name of science and discovery.

Women in the early days of climbing literature were not only pushing the physical boundaries of harsh weather and difficult travel in mountain environments, they were pushing against societal repression and extreme gender inequality. For women in 4

Victorian society to venture into the adventure sport world required no small amount of breaking down the walls of “proper” ladylike behavior. Corsets and heavy woolen dresses restricted movement and breathing. Some chose to remain in floor length skirts and hats with veils, while others elected to shirk convention and move to a more modern, and practical dress style. Fanny Bullock Workman climbed in full Victorian dress including heavy wool skirts for her whole climbing career, while her rival Annie Smith

Peck chose to climb in bloomers. Peck’s decision to lose the skirt in favor of the more practical outfit was considered a serious scandal.

Some woman climbers used climbing as their opportunity to express their political values to the world, or to be financially independent, publishing accounts of their expeditions in periodicals. This allowed women not only a way to finance their expeditions, but a chance to be seen and recognized in the historic record alongside their male counterparts. and Fanny Bullock Workman, two Victorian era climbers made an indelible mark on women’s climbing history.

While embittered in personal rivalries over altitude achievements, both Annie

Smith Peck and Fanny Bullock Workman were strong supporters of early feminist movements, and were well known for their activities in the Women’s Suffrage movement. Both went so far as to take photographs with banners or Newspaper headlines declaring “VOTES FOR WOMEN” while on expedition (Brown, xii). Peck’s image was featured in advertisements for Singer sewing machines, with the idea that women would glue Peck’s picture into their sewing benches as a source of inspiration.

In Peck and Workman’s day, the abilities of women were vastly underestimated.

Women were seen as too weak, both physically and mentally, to carry out the tasks given 5 to men. Medical professionals of the day saw mild exercise as a way to encourage

“mental stability” in women (Ernie-Steighner, 30), both Peck and Workman set forth the idea that women were inherently strong and capable, and that their ability to climb alongside men was proof of this. Peck included her feminist ideals in her writing, and in interviews with newspapers. She wrote a great deal on how women should be able to determine their own limitations, rather than being told so by men. She was quoted as saying “That women’s sphere should be prescribed by men, that men know better what is womanly and what we are capable than do we ourselves, has not seemed to me logical or proper.” (Ernie-Stighner, 26). The pinnacle of Peck’s climbing career was the successful summit of Huascaran in Peru, which at the time was believed to be the highest mountain in South America. Following the climb, reports of her trip were published all across the

United States and Europe, heralding her as one of the top female climbers. Peck, responded to this saying “A woman who has done good work in the scholastic world doesn’t like to be called a good woman scholar. Call her a good scholar and let it go at that… Don’t call me a woman mountain climber.” (Scialdone-Kimberley, 1)

At the height of her achievements, Peck was a prominent figure in suffrage circles, providing a model of what women were capable physically. Her educational advantages and familial prowess allowed her a voice that was taken seriously by those in positions of power. The same can be said for Bullock, she travelled and wrote extensively with her husband William Hunter Workman, a respected climber and scientist himself.

She was also fortunate to be born to a wealthy family, which provided her the opportunity to gain education and teach her leadership skills that she would need in her future endeavors, both personally and politically. At the time, climbing was an activity of the 6 leisure class. The wealthy had the time and resources to devote their energy to mountain exploration. Long expeditions were primarily scientific in nature and mountaineers were well educated. As with their emergence in climbing, the scholarly world was also a relatively modern option for women, and wealthier women were afforded more freedom and opportunity to receive formal education.

Within the climbing culture itself, women climbers and explorers had other barriers to cross to be accepted within the field as being able to contribute important thoughts and achievements to the subculture. Numerous geographical and adventure societies existed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The initial rejection of women from geographic societies sparked the beginning of women’s specific climbing clubs. As time wore on, women were not only putting up numerous notable ascents, but also contributing greatly to the advancement of scientific expeditions in the far reaches of the mountains. One after the other, geographic societies began to accept women fellows into their ranks. One of the last, and perhaps the most prestigious of these societies to accept women fellows was the Royal Geographic Society (RGS) in England.

Workman was among the first women to be granted fellowship into the RGS. The debate over the admission of female fellows took over 20 years (Bell, 295). During this time, the arguments being made to keep female members out reflected greater society.

Though numerous woman scholars had presented to the society, given lectures, and been awarded great honors for their contributions to the field, Society members such as Lord

Curzon still felt that “Their sex and training render them equally unfitted for exploration, and the genus of professional female globe-trotters with which America has lately familiarized us is one of the horrors of the latter end of the nineteenth century.” (Bell, 7

298). The eventual acceptance into the RGS marked an important point in the legitimization of women’s climbing achievements. While there were still numerous factors and prejudices working against them, by the early 1900s, women had carved out a legitimate place in the history books, alongside their male counterparts.

With the outbreak of WWI, climbing and travel were more or less put on hold. The Alps were the major testing ground for new routes and with the war literally surrounding the mountain range, very little is seen in terms of climbing achievements made.

The war effort brought women out of the home and into the workforce.

Following the conclusion of the war, women were unwilling to give up their newfound independence. Having proved that they were capable of engaging in occupations previously thought inappropriate for them, women were poised to make big changes in many facets of their lives. This pioneering spirit transferred into the climbing world with the emergence of all female climbing teams.

While the 1800s had been a period of exploration and romanticism in the mountains, attracting the elite of society, the interwar period broke down societal boundaries, giving lower classes the chance to engage in leisure sport.

Mountaineering texts had once been rich with poetic descriptions of the human experience. The publications in the early 1900s were simpler, devoid of the flowery language seen in earlier writing. The “age of mountain guide book narratives” followed the conclusion of WWI (Vause, 7). The “golden era” of , the era of the scientific expedition, was over. Very little was published by women during this period. It was not until after WWII that woman climbers of the interwar period 8 set down their stories, though they were more likely to publish accounts of their climbs within their own lifetime that their Victorian predecessors. Prior to this, the works of female climbers were not given the same attention as the writing of men.

Women’s experiences were captured primarily in personal letters and newspaper publications, which were not anthologized until much later. It had been the rare exception for women to publish books on their adventures.

In the Alps, interwar climbers moved towards a more technically challenging style of climbing. First ascents of major summits in the Alps had been done, so the shift towards more physically and mentally demanding routes allowed climbers to continue pushing the limits. While not common, it was certainly accepted for women to join parties of men take in these technical routes both on rock and ice.

They were not expedition leaders, nor were they considered to be strong reliable climbers. Women were “allowed” to join in on easier days with parties of men, or to hire guides to take them up the mountain. It was not accepted that a woman could make leadership decisions on technical routes, or have the strength and resilience to finish a climb without the aid of men. This sparked the desire for all-female climbing teams. With 2 or 3 women on a rope, decisions were made as a team, or with the more skilled person taking leadership, rather than the power resting in the hands of the male participants, regardless of experience. It created a more balanced relationship on the wall.

Emily Kelly, founder of one of the original women’s rock climbing organizations, The Pinnacle Club, remarked “As in other walks of life, women wanted to find their own feet: it was very splendid for some women to be always 9 able to borrow crutches in the shape of a man’s help, but it is even better to find we have feet of our own and can climb some things as well as a man climber.” (Mazel,

American mountaineer Miriam O’Brien Underhill was an early pioneer of all- female climbing teams. She passionately defended “Manless Climbing”, arguing that a woman could not know what she was really capable of until she climbed a route without a guide or any other man on the rope. Undaunted by the disapproval of her male climbing partners, she went on the make a series of impressive ascents with female partners. She wrote in her 1956 book Give me the hills “ Very early I realized that the person who invariably climbs behind a good leader… may never really learn mountaineering at all and in any case enjoys only a part of the varied delights and rewards of climbing.” (Underhill, 149) Underhill goes on to discuss the inherent assumptions that went along with climbing in the company of men, that as a woman she was assumed to be the weakest member of the team regardless of her actual performance on the route.

August of 1929, Underhill and her partner Alice Damesme made the first all- female ascent of The Grepon, a peak in the French Alps. The route was considered challenging by contemporary standards and the two women successfully summited, passing a party of men on route. Following their ascent, French climber Etienne

Bruhl stated “The Grepon has disappeared… Now that it has been done by two women, no self-respecting man can undertake it.” (Underhill, 169). Bruhl’s statement reflects that despite the headway in women were making, and the increasing number of female climbers, they were not yet accepted as “true” mountain athletes. 10

There was little encouragement from climbing publications for women climbers. The Alpine Journal treated Underhill and Damesme’s lead on the Grepon as an anomaly, stating, “Few ladies, even in these days are even capable of mountaineering unaccompanied” (Pilley, 130). While their presence in the mountains was certainly growing, there was still an expectation that woman climbers were dependant on men.

Predating Underhill’s achievements, British climber Dorothy Pilley declared,

“Women could and should take full responsibility for climbs within their power”

(Pilley, 131). She and fellow climbers Lilian Bray and Annie Wells made several ascents in the Saas Fee region of Switzerland without male companions. Though these climbers were not particularly difficult, it was the first record of women engaging in technical climbing without the leadership of men.

While both Pilley and Underhill wrote on the personal ambition of climbing with an all female team, there was a shift from the broader politics of Women’s rights seen in earlier writing. With the emergence of women in the working world, and British and American suffrage achievements, the focus of women’s struggle for equality transitioned to an individual level. Leading trips of their own, taking charge of the route finding and planning aspects of a climbing trip pushed women to discover much more than their physical strength. This was the beginning of women’s move to equality in the climbing world, mirroring the achievements they had made in greater society.

The 1950s were an important period in mountaineering history. With WWII over, it was once again possible for climbers to climb far off mountains. Sir Edmund 11

Hillary claimed the first ascent of Mt Everest in 1953 as part of a British expedition.

It was a time of possibility and innovation in general society as well as the mountaineering world. Women in the workforce during WWII engaged in activities that were previously thought to be impossible or unsuitable for them. Women’s climbing clubs were now well established, and it was understood that women were capable to undertaking increasingly greater challenges in the mountains as well as daily life.

Sir John Hunt, the expedition leader for the 1953 Everest ascent spoke out in support of women climbers engaging in high altitude expeditions. After receiving a letter from two young women who wrote him with their aspirations of being the first women to summit Everest, Hunt said “of all the thousands of letters which I have received, I think this has given me the most pleasure.“ (Williams, 159). Hunt’s comments reinforced what women climbers already knew to an audience much wider than their local climbing club. This positive attention from high profile male climbers gave them the validation they needed to be taken seriously by those outside of their own circles.

In 1955, the British Mountaineering Council granted guiding certifications to a woman, Gwen Moffat, for the first time. Moffat, was a reflection of changing times.

She was a rambunctious, lower class woman living a bohemian lifestyle. This was a far cry from the upper class intellectual that had populated the climbing world prior to the wars. The climber of the 1950’s was a fringe personality who had given up the conveniences of typical life to live in the mountains. They were driven by passion and a need for physical expression. While women were exploring new freedoms, 12 there was still a social expectation of being caregivers and housewives. Moffat defied convention taking her life into her own hands.

She lived most of her life in poverty, married and divorced twice and lived a free wheeling bohemian lifestyle. An army deserter, she moved between communes and life on the road. Climbing became her passion, and guiding was the only occupation that captured her for long enough to earn a steady living. She was also a prolific writer, publishing 35 books over her lifetime. After her first book – a climbing memoir titled Space Beneath my Feet– she went on to write a series of detective stories centered around a woman climber/detective, Melinda Pink.

Although women were becoming more visible in the workforce, Moffat undertook the challenge of becoming a guide at a time when “Women were not free to abandon their ‘domestic duties’ whenever they felt like it and rush off to the hills.” (Birkett,

78) Despite the sacrifices she made to her personal relationships Moffat made it clear that women could be as free as men.

Moffat’s status as a certified guide was a recognition of the perceived ability of women by the male professional class of mountaineers. Since men held the powerful positions in mountaineering society, their acceptance of women into the professional body of climbers was very significant. While she faced some initial resistance from clients, her career was successful overall. After instructing her first course, Moffat noted that “I was not longer a woman with a reputation, but an instructor with a technique superior to theirs, and now we could settle down to work.” (Moffat, 235) 13

Moffat was not the only pioneering female climber in this time period. In

1955, Monica Jackson, Elizabeth Stark and Evelyn Camrass undertook the first all women’s expedition in the . As Jackson says in the book Tents in the

Clouds “I should like to make it clear that the ‘first ever’ aspect was quite unpremeditated. It was not until our plans had already begun to take shape that it occurred to us that we were creating a precedent.” (Jackson,17). These three women were not professional climbers. Jackson was a freelance journalist and mother, Stark a doctor, and Camrass a teacher. Upon applying for their climbing permits, Stark remarked” it occurs to me too that it is not laughable to write ‘

Housewife’ as occupation when applying for permission to climb in the Himalaya. It is a sedentary job which keeps one in poor training.”

Stereotypes of feminine weakness plagued their initial application for climbing permits. They were treated with, as Jackson put it “A good deal of prejudice” (Jackson, 17) Although women had climbed in the Himalayas before, this would be the first time there were no western men on site. There were concerns over interactions between western women and local men. One critic of their planned expedition “They might be first class climbers, but these was no guarantee that they could cope with a drunken Sherpa.” (William, 162). The success of their expedition proved it was possible for women to earn the respect of Sherpas and climb side by side without problems.

As women became more and more successful at high altitude and at the far reaches of the great mountain ranges, the ideas about what the “ideal” climber looked like was changing. The idea that climbing was a man’s endeavor, or that 14 women climbers were outliers had become outdated. As Jackson stated “There is no ideal shape or size or a man when it comes to Himalayan climbing – as witnessed by the diversity of the Everest and Kanchenjunga team. But it may well be that a small woman scores at great heights if she is wiry and spirited.” (Jackson, 115)

In the years that followed Jackson’s expedition, numerous other all female teams made their way into the Himalayas. More and more women were entering the sport of climbing, and they were excelling at higher levels. The horizon looked very wide for women in mountain sports.

Between 1953 and 1960, each of the 14 eight-thousanders (peaks over

8000m in altitude) had been summited by men. However, it was not until the 1970s that women began to reach for their own height records. Prior to the 1970s the women’s altitude record was held by Claude Kogen, who reached 7600 m on Cho

Oyo in 1954. Women did not pass the 8000 m for another 20 years, when a team of

Japanese women climbed Manaslu (8156 m) in 1974. While the height race was over for men in 1953, with the successful summit of Mt Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary, it was only beginning for women.

The world of high altitude mountaineering was beginning to break open for women, but not without a great deal of resistance. The attitude held by high profile climbers like Reinhold Messner and Edmund Hillary considered female climbers irresponsible mothers and wives, whose presence was a distraction from the bonds of manhood they sought in the mountains (“Annapura”, 2, 7, 67). Messner even ommited the names of Alison Chadwick-Onysziewicz and Vera Watson, who fell to their deaths on Annapurna in 1978, out of his book Annapurna: 50 Years of 15

Expeditions to the Death Zone, despite mentioning their deaths (Rak, 142). It was under this pervasive sexism that women set forth to make altitude records in the

Himalayas.

Arlene Blum, a prominent American climber and scientist wrote two books on her climbing experiences. Annapurna, A Woman’s Place Published in 1980 details

Blum’s 1978 expedition to Annapurna. Her 2005 memoir Breaking Trail delves into

Blum’s childhood and growth from a novice climber to an elite mountaineer. Both books focus on the challenges she endured as a woman in the climbing world.

Breaking Trail also details her work as a scientist and PhD student in America in the

1960s and 70s.

The expedition outlined in Annapurna was the first all women’s expedition to the remote Nepalese mountain. It acts not only as a trip report, but also as a feminist dialogue of the way in which woman climbers were perceived and treated in the

1970s. This book is still considered to be “the most sustained discussion of gender politics that can be found in any expedition account.”(Rak, 131)

Blum had previously applied to take part in 1969 American expedition to

Koh-i-Marchech, a remote peak in Afghanistan and was told that “One woman and nine men would seem to be unpleasant on open ice, not only in excretory situations, but in the easy masculine companionship which is so vital a part of the joy of an expedition.” (“Annapurna”, 1)

This was not the first time that Blum’s gender was the reason for her rejected application. The trip leader on the Koh-i-Marchech expedition made sure to let her know that her climbing ability and personality were not the issues of contention. 16

Earlier in her climbing career, she had requested to join a party to Denali, in Alaska and was refused on the basis that “Women aren’t emotionally stable enough to handle [high altitude].”(“Breaking Trail,” 56). Blum went on to plan her own trip to

Denali in 1970 in the company of 5 other women. They became the first all female party to summit the mountain, pulling off a daring rescue of a member of their party who fell ill near the summit, a feat that had previously been considered impossible at such high altitiude.

Blum was a part of many mixed gender expeditions all around the world, those expeditions she was allowed on, she was still dealt with gender discrimination. During an expedition to Peru, she became very ill during a climb. Her slow pace and fatigue was blamed on being a “weak woman”. Even after being diagnosed with Hepatitis, her team mates, including her soon-to-be-ex boyfriend

John Hall, stood by their prior comments that women were unfit to join groups of men at high altitude. Hall admitted that Blum was a strong climber, but still held the idea that women were inherently weak and unfit for high altitude travel. Blum and

Hall’s relationship ended after the incident in Peru.

The challenges that she faced in the climbing world mirrored her professional work. As a woman scientist in the 1970s, Blum had difficultly finding a faculty and an advisor supportive of her PhD. She fought hard to be taken seriously as an academic, but faced constant ridicule that she was “trying to find a smart husband” in her difficult physics courses (“Breaking Trail”, 29 ) . Although she found individuals who were supportive of her, the institutions of both academia and climbing were generally set against the advancement of women. In 1966, while 17 searching for an advisor, Blum was informed that MIT had never granted a PhD in her field (physical chemistry) to a woman, and according to one professor, they never would. She was the only woman in her class, and her faculty building at MIT didn’t even have a ladies bathroom (“Breaking Trail”, 29).

Applications for large-scale expeditions out of country needed support from the (AAC). In 1978, The AAC was reluctant to give permission for an all women’s team to attempt Annapurna. Although the AAC did eventually consent to their expedition, Blum notes that very few women were granted the opportunity to take part in AAC expeditions in the years that followed

(“Annapurna”, 244)

The Annapurna expedition was funded in part by a book deal, which turned into Annapurna, a Woman’s Place, and the sale of T-shirts bearing the slogan “A

Woman’s Place is on the Top – Annapurna.” Her expedition put Irene Miller and

Vera Komarkova on the summit of the mountain, but cost two women, Alison

Chadwick-Onysziewicz and Vera Watson their lives. Annapurna is known as the deadliest of the 8000m peaks, with a 32% fatality rate.

Blum’s contributions to the world of mountaineering were immense. Her writing is still held to be an important testament to the power of women climbers, and the struggles they faced. Women climbers now held the power to show the world what they were capable of. Though both the climbing and professional world were wracked with institutionalized sexism, women were rising to the top little by little. 18

Climbing objectives had become increasingly difficult, and athletes began to specialize. Strong technical rock climbers emerged alongside high altitude mountaineers. Lynn Hill emerged at the top of the technical climbing field in the

1970’s and 80’s, one of the few women to be considered one of the Yosemite

“Stonemasters”. The Stonemasters were a small, tightly knit group comprised almost entirely of men whose hard climbing, rebellious behavior and lack of concern for personal wellbeing became legendary stood at the forefront of Yosemite climbing. Hill, nicknamed “Little Herc” for her strength and small stature, found a place amongst the Yosemite hard men and went on to break more climbing records than any other woman in the history of the sport (Vause, 54). At the pinnacle of her career, Hill puts up the first free ascent of the classic Yosemite test piece, The Nose route on El Capitan in 1994, earning her a place in climbing history. She was the first person, man or woman to free the Nose.

At 5’1”, Hill was considerably shorter than most other hard climbers in the

1980’s, or today for that matter. In her memoir “Climbing Free” Hill writes about the expectations of women as the “weaker sex”. Her successes on a difficult boulder problem prompted one male climber to say “Gee, I can’t even do that”, as though being a woman predisposed her to being a weak climber. (Hill, 43) Even in the late

1980’s, Alfred Mummery’s belief of all climbs becoming “an easy day for a lady” was still held by many in the climbing community.

Despite all of the headway made by strong female climbers over the past 100 years, the attitude that women shouldn’t be able to perform at the level of men was pervasive in the climbing culture. While women like Hill were able to carve out 19 comfortable niches, filled with supportive partners and friends, the climbing community was still not a wholly welcoming place for women. As Hill put it “I was often disappointed by sexist attitudes outside the climbing scene, but it made me even more annoyed to see them among climbers.” (Hill, 44)

Hill left an important legacy for American climbers to follow. In 1990, she climbed “Masse Critique” In Cimai France, becoming became the first woman to climb 5.14. Even by modern standards, this was a very noteworthy achievement as there are only a handful of climbers who climb that hard, few of them women.

Climbing has always been about pushing the boundaries of possibility. As the altitude race came to an end, with the successful summit of all 14 peaks over 8000 m, climbers began focusing on increasingly difficult objectives. These objectives carry with them a great deal of inherent risk. While technical face and crack climbing like Hill’s achievements top the scales for difficulty of movement, there is another metric for hard climbing. Difficult mountaineering and alpine routes carry far greater risk of avalanche, unprotected falls, bad weather, and complications with altitude. These big alpine ascents in the Himalayas are still important to the history and development of climbing.

For some, the risk of death in high places was not worth the reward. Hill herself was once an accomplished alpinist as well as a hard technical climber, but removed herself from the alpine environment saying, “The high mountains are dead places. Nothing lives up there. I understand the adventure and the pristine beauty of going to them, but it’s not worth the risk and discomfort – or the hurt that it brings to the people who are close to you if you die.”(Coffey, 13) Hill’s decision to return to 20 technical rock instead of alpine climbing was based partly on her desire to start a family and her risk reward decision placed her family first.

The need for balance between climbing and family is a pressure that is under much more scrutiny for women than it is for men. Jennifer Jordan, Author of “

Savage Summit”, a biography of the first five women to summit , discusses the way in which the media discussed the death of Alison Hargreaves on K2 in 1995, painting her as a bad mother, rather than a fallen hero “In the weeks after her death climbers, columnists… came out of the wood work to opine about her ‘obsession’ with climbing K2…about her ‘selfishness’ in choosing the mountain over motherhood” (Jordan, 261). Motherhood in this context seems to carry a greater weight than fatherhood. Women are considered irresponsible to leave a child behind, but male climbers rarely have their families brought into the conversation.

Maria Coffey wrote in her book Where the Mountain Casts it’s Shadow “ When George

Mallory disappeared on Everest, he, too, left a wife and small children behind, yet this did nothing to dint his heroic image.” (Coffey, 73)

Some woman climbers make the decision to choose climbing over family by deciding not to have a family. Legendary polish alpinist Wanda Rutkiewicz’s love for the mountains ended both of her marriages, but she understood the sacrifice she was making. Rutkiewicz had no children, which allowed her to continue to focus on her alpine pursuits without the criticism that faced climbing mothers. “ I cannot resist the mountains,” She said once, “So I have chosen the single life.” (Mcdonald,

273). Rutkiewicz described her relationship with the mountain to her close friend

Marion Feik “When I’m up in the thin air, suffering at every step, I’m able to reach 21 deep into my inner self, and in those moments I have a certainty that someone is helping me.” (McDonald, 256). This a common sentiment among high altitude climbers, something Bernadette McDonald describes as “A rational acceptance of danger, combined with the psychic bond to a benevolent higher power, that elusive third man.” (McDonald, 257).

Though a general acceptance of women in the elite of mountain sports has grown, there is still a disconnect between what it means to be a climber versus what it means to be a man or woman in society. In climbing, there is an understanding that sacrifices need to be made to succeed on the mountain. There is a general understanding amongst climbers that the top athletes get to where they are because they were willing to sacrifice everything else to get to the top.

There are still different expectations between genders; women remain connected to family at their core, whereas men are seen as more distant. Societies expectations for mothers to place their families first, and fathers to continue “in the trenches” is reflected back in the climbing culture. The media loves the idea of female climbers at the top of their game, but there is disconnect between the idea of high performance climbing and the sacrifice that is required. The idea that female climbers should be able to perform at high level, but still put their family first is not equally placed on male climbers. It had been settled that women were physically and mentally capable of climbing at a high level, the criticism had moved away from her own abilities, and landed on how her climbing affected those around her. There seemed to be a progression from criticizing core abilities, in favor of others around her. It seemed that women were not only responsible for being strong enough for 22 themselves, but also strong enough for everyone around her. She is responsible to her partner on the mountain, her partner at home and her children. Men are frequently rewarded for “leaving it all” on the mountain. They are expected to soldier on through the death of others, issues with relationships, and spending vast amounts of time away from their families. Perhaps we have reached a point where rather than women being too harshly judges, men are not criticized enough.

Climbers are well aware that big, dangerous ascents are done for entirely selfish reasons. There is no money and only moderate fame in these hazardous climbs. The only reason that a climber pushes for the summit against this level of adversity is because they want to.

In the last several years, technical climbing has moved into the mainstream.

Climbing classes are easily accessible, and most major urban centers have at least one indoor climbing facility. Climbing is no longer limited to individuals who are willing to give up the comforts of home and live in the backcountry or on the road. Even those who live far from mountains or cliff bands can get into the climbing scene. Adventure sport film and book festivals have multiplied and grown in popularity.

Over 40% of modern climbers are female. The gender division across the climbing community is becoming increasingly equal. Women’s specific courses are offered at most gyms, and high profile climbers like Jen Olson and Steph Davis offer women’s climbing seminars for beginner and intermediate athletes. Despite the groundwork being laid for recreational climbers, the upper reaches of the sport remain a male dominated space. Since it’s inception in 1992, only one woman, Japanese climber

Kei Taniguchi, has ever won the prestigious Piolet D’or mountaineering award. 23

Taniguchi was awarded the Golden axe in 2009 for the first ascent of the South East face of Kamet, a Himalayan peak standing 7756m high. Bernadette McDonald is the only woman author to win the grand prize at the Banff Book festival since 1995. McDonald was honored in 2011 for her book “Freedom Climbers”, a history of Polish mountaineers.

Sponsors also tend to favor men over women. Only 9 of Petzl’s 36 sponsored team athletes are women, the Same can be said for The North Face, who’s female athletes make up less than 30% of their Roster. Sanuk Footwear, who sponsors primarily climbers and snowboarder’s fare even worse, only 3 of their 24 team athletes are women. For a sport whose athletes so dependent on corporate sponsorship, this is appalling. Companies are less likely to offer lucrative sponsorships to women, which in turn make it considerably more difficult for women to finance high profile ascents. The same holds true for other sporting organizations. In 2009, funding for the Canadian Biathlon team was slashed in half. This resulted in the Women’s national team coach losing his job, leaving the women’s team without a coach. The number of sports for women for the following Olympic games was cut in half. The women’s team had to fundraise their way to the Olympics in 2010, in part with calendar sales. No spaces were cut from the men’s team that year.

With the advent of the Internet, women climbers and writers of all levels have been more likely to publish their stories online, creating their own online communities in the process. Crush Crux, The Gription, Girl Beta and other blogs produced by women, allow for a gendered discussion of climbing culture. Discussion on these platforms offers insight into women-specific challenges that are associated with climbing. Relationships and motherhood are frequent topics, which are less often discussed in mainstream, or 24 predominantly male climbing narratives. The freedom of expression afforded by the

Internet has allowed for the publication of narratives that had not been heard in the past.

Women have been pushing the limits in alpine and technical climbing of all disciplines. Gerlinde Kaltenbruner successfully summited all of the 8000’ers without supplemental oxygen, in 2011; Hazel Findley became the first British woman to send E9 grit stone, in 2013; and Sasha Diguilian cracked the 5.14d grade for women in 2011.

Pamela Pack is widely considered to be among the best American off-width climber, male or female; and Steph Davis, free soloist and BASE jumper has shown that women, too, are capable of the mental tenacity required for ropeless climbing. She became the first, and possibly only, woman to free solo 5.11+ with her ascent of The North Face of

Castleton Tower in 2008

Modern female climbers are clearly performing at very high levels, but it is still sometimes difficult to engage in a community that views femininity as weakness, or something that doesn’t belong in adventure sport. Top female free-soloist Steph Davis said in her memoir High Infatuation “I felt that I was often figuratively patted on the head

– excessively praised for this that weren’t really that impressive, by real climbing standards, just because I was a decent looking girl. But at other times, when I did do a particularly good climb, I sometimes encountered a surprising degree of negativity. It was as if there was a certain place for me as a woman” (Davis, 40). Davis’ 2007 book includes not only details of some of the high points of her climbing career, but also outlines the effect that a life of climbing has had on her personal relationships. One thing she makes note of in particular is the dynamic of climbing with men, particularly with a group of men. She tells the story of climbing a wall in Yosemite with 2 men. Rather than 25 discussing who would take on the crux pitch, it was assumed (by her partners) that one of the men would take the lead. She wrote, “I wasn’t going to argue… but fumed as I jumared the line, asking myself if I should have brought a climbing resume up El Capitan

“(Davis, 40).

Davis’ sentiment is echoed in a blog piece written by climber Georgie Abel, published on Touchstone Climbing Incorporated in 2013, titled “What Girls Think

(About Climbing with Dudes)” which included conversations with 100 different female climbers of all skill levels about attitudes that have encountered with male climbing partners. The frustration that women feel with male climbers stems from a tendency to make assumptions about what women are capable of mentally and physically. The general sentiment is that there is tendency to either assume that women are incapable, or to “attribute their strength to something other than their strength” (Abel, 2013).

Hilary Oliver, who writes primarily for The Gription but is frequently featured on

Adventure Journal and other publications, has written numerous pieces discussing the gendered expectations placed on female outdoors athletes. Her 2013 post on Adventure

Journal “Do These Booty Shorts make my Female Empowerment Look Fat” tackles the fine line that women are expected to tread between showing pride in an athletic body, and becoming a sex object. Many mainstream adventure sports publications showcase female athletes in a way that takes away their credibility as athletes, focusing instead on their bodies. Numerous media outlets have drawn criticism for their portrayal of female athletes including Freeskier magazine, Tracks surfing magazine and Sports

Illustrated among others, for removing female athletes from their sport when publishing photos and articles about them. In 2013, Freeskier magazine published a 26 piece titled “10 Hottest Women in Freeskiing.” The photos chosen to accompany the article took many of the athletes out of their sport setting to focus on their physical appearance. Lynsey Dyer, top performing skier and founder of SheJumps.com, a women’s social media platform focused on outdoor sports, was featured in the article wearing a bikini on a beach. In fact, 5 of the 10 women in the article were pictured in swimsuits or lingerie. Dyer responded with an open letter to free skier on her Facebook page. “Though I don’t have a problem wearing a biking or celebrating being a girl, many legitimate skiing photos have been available to

Freeskier Magazine if would have only asked. However they used an image without rights or permission in a blatant objectification of some of the legitimate members of the Freeskiing family in exchange for page views.” (Dyer, 2013) Dyer’s scathing comments resulted in her own photo being changed in the online article. Taking the female athlete out of her sport setting removes her physically ability or mental tenacity from the picture. It no longer matters that she can stomp double back flips, or has sent some of the most aesthetic lines captured on film, she becomes the image that we project in the media. As Oliver puts it “Sometimes I just want to trail run or sport climb without thinking about the message I’m sending to the men around me.” (Oliver, 2013)

Young girls in this generation now have strong, adventurous women to look up to in their sports. Allowing for the equal representation of genders in print media, magazines, film and books is important to give legitimacy to the feats being performed by strong female athletes. In 2014, Dyer went on to produce an all- women’s ski film, which debuted to sold out crowds in October 2014. Dyer’s Film,

Pretty Faces, was the first all female ski film and was produced by crowd sourcing 27 on kick-starter, rather than being funded by major corporate sponsors. Much like the climbing world, skiing, while a relatively young sport, is 40% female, with a male dominated top tier. In 2013 only 14% of athletes in ski films were female.

Over the course of history, women have consistently fought back against assumptions of their capabilities. In the 1800’s, they proved that female body was strong enough to handle harsh weather and high altitude. In the early 1900’s they showed that women could climb on their own, unaided my men. Post war, all- women large-scale expeditions to the Himalayas showed that women were capable of great leadership and planning in the mountains. By the mid 1900’s, Arlene Blum proved that women could be at the forefront of both climbing and science. Lynne

Hill and other strong technical climbers broke up the Yosemite boys club and made history on hard technical routes. Steph Davis opened the door to free soloing and

BASE-jumping, and women climbers everywhere took to their keyboards to create an online community of supportive and inspiring women all over the world. Women climbers have come a long way from Mt Blanc in 1808 to competing on the world stage in 2014. This is not to say that we have reached the pinnacle of gender equality in modern times. Certainly there are still improvements to be made with representation in the media by improving the ratio of men to women to closer reflect the actual make up to the community, and by portraying women in a way that allows them to be taken seriously in a sport setting. While gross numbers of female climbers have increased dramatically in the last decade, the majority of mountain guides and outdoor professionals are still male, and female adventurers do not receive the same recognition for their achievements as their male counterparts. 28

The Internet age has opened up great possibilities for female athletes to showcase their accomplishments both through writing and film. Women athletes are taking matters into their own hands, as they have always done, to fight for equal representation and acceptance in the climbing community. With top tier female sports people like Lynsey Dyer pushing for increases in women’s coverage in action sports film, and high profile athletes encouraging young women to get outside and push the limits, the next generation of female athletes has a lot to look forward to.

Thanks to the hard work of numerous female athletes and outdoor people, we have created an international community of supportive adventurous women. What we need is for the corporate sponsors, and other powerful people to step up and take the issue of gender balance seriously. Right now, the people who are the most vocal about creating positive change in our community are small groups of women relying on donations and crowd sourcing to bring the issue to light. While this is a positive step in the right direction, what we need is for mainstream adventure sports media to take this to the next level and create an equal space for women to excel at the top tier of the sport.

29

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