Miriam O’Brien Underhill: The Mountain Climber Who Needed No Men

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She pioneered and argued for “manless” climbing in a hugely influential 1934 essay.

From an essay she wrote:

I saw no reason, why women, ipso facto, should be incapable of leading a good climb. They had, as a matter of fact, already done so, on some few scattered occasions. But why not make it a regular thing, on the usual climbs of the day?…I decided to try some climbs not only guideless, but manless.

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