Book Report

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.

Leading Out: Mountaineering Stories of Adventurous Women 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.

This book moved me in so many ways, and surprised me by becoming one of my favorite things I've ever read. I would recommend it to any woman I know. This is the first hand account of the woman who organized the first all women's (and first American team's) summit of Annapurna. Naturally, they were a group of bad ass lady scientists from Berkeley and the Pacific Northwest.

It was amazing to read about a woman in 1978 struggling with many of the same issues I do today: how to balance decisiveness and getting input from people on decisions, how to stop trying to be accommodating and likable when we need to be strong.

I don't know if this is because of the author's perspective as a woman, or as a scientist, but I loved the pragmatic and intentional approach she took to writing this story. She took great care to equally represent the perspectives of the other women from the expedition. She was frank about emotions, and few other books talk about the mental challenges a trip like this presents. There was no ego in this book, unlike mountaineering books I've read by men. In the end, what made this expedition so successful, was these strong women leveraging their strength in collaboration and cooperation to reach the top of one of the world's most dangerous mountains, which again, is in stark contrast to the stories men tell.

Annapurna: A Woman's Place In August 1978, thirteen women left San Francisco for the Nepal Himalaya to make history as the first Americans—and the first women—to scale the treacherous slopes of Annapurna I, the world’s tenth highest peak. Expedition leader Arlene Blum here tells their dramatic story: the lo...