Classic autobiography of one of the greatest female British mountaineers, Dorothy Pilley (1893 - 1986).
When Dorothy Pilley first began climbing in the 1910s, female mountaineers were seen as a dangerous liability, their achievements ignored, unrecorded or disbelieved. Undeterred, Dorothy proved herself on the vertiginous slopes of Wales, Scotland and the Lake District before tackling rock faces in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Rockies, Mount Fuji and the Himalayas. Her tireless championing of fellow women climbers and her own trailblazing example helped establish female alpinists as serious mountaineers with impressive records on bravery, skill and endurance.
First published in 1935, Climbing Days tells a daredevil tale of adventure, near-death slips and rapturous achievement in high places, interleaved with moments highlighting the particular challenges of being a woman in a sport seen as the province of men. It covers early climbs in the Lake District and Skye, the Alps and Pyrenees, the Tatra, USA and Canada and culminates with a gripping account of the first ascent of the North Ridge of the Dent Blanche with her husband Ivor Richards and the guide Joseph Georges in 1928.
With an introduction by her great-nephew Dan Richards.
Card cover, 20cm x 13cm, 400 pages.
Originally published 1935 by G Bell & Sons, this edition 2024 published by Canongate.
ISBN: 9781805302537.