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

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.

See also:

• • Virginia Hall (one-legged spy who climbed mountains to escape Nazis)
  • Gertrude Bell (mountaineer, explorer, and diplomat)

• Fannie Quigley (miner, hunter, and brewer who used mine shafts as beer fridges)
• Ashima Shiraishi (incredibly successful teen mountain climber)
• Lhakpa Sherpa (who has climbed Everest more than any other woman)
• Junko Tabei (first woman to summit Everest)
• The Cholita climbers of Bolivia (whose outfits are so on point)