02/05/2016
After A Woman's Place I needed to read another book about the outdoors written by women. This book is an anthology of climbing and mountaineering essays, that also includes some historical accounts of early women climbers. I honestly thought the historical climbing would be boring, but it was one of my favorite parts. In the early days when women completed a climb, men would refuse to climb it again. Women would stash their skirts in some bushes at the trailhead so they could get up the mountains unencumbered. A woman in 1920s Scotland talks about attempting to rescue an obstinate sheep stuck on a ledge.
Some of the stories were incredibly emotional. I especially appreciated one woman's story of how her relationship to the outdoors changed over time, and she found new ways to appreciate the mountains as she changed as a person. So many of the stories focused on building community and relationships through the wilderness, or on creating a relationship with one's own body.
This book made me excited to find out what kind of women's outdoor community there is locally, and get more involved with my local Sierra Club hikes. (I belong to the Gay & Le***an chapter, because of course.) To date I've only gone on one, and it involved more hummus than it did hiking.
A collection of inspiring essays by over 25 prominent women climbers. The works include Bachrendi Pal's account as the first woman to climb Everest and the story of blind climber Colette Richard's ascent of Mount Tondu in the French Alps.
