Mountaineering Women

The first illustrated book to celebrate the remarkable stories and achievements of twenty of the most daring women mountaineers from around the globe. As adventure pursuits like climbing and mountaineering continue to gain popularity on the world stage, women's visibility in the sport has also grown. Mountaineering Women is the first publication of its kind, a richly illustrated collection of the awesome and oft surprising stories that celebrate the achievements of twenty women climbers from across the globe.

From the Amazigh (Berbers) of the Atlas Mountains to the Inca Empire, high in the Andes, women have long traversed the world’s most forbidding peaks. When, many centuries later, mountaineering took off as a sporting activity in the West, it was plucky Victorian women who defied convention to tackle the fabled summits of the European Alps. Yet despite the fact that women have a pronounced and rich history in the sport, they are conspicuously absent from mountaineering literature.

Mountaineering Women seeks to redress a narrative that frequently focuses on the exploits of white, male ‘explorers’. The climbers come from a wide range of nations, and each of their compelling stories is accompanied by a specially commissioned ink illustration and evocative black-and-white photographs. Three 16-page photographic sections, meanwhile, reveal the mountaineers in action and the mountainscapes in all their grandeur.

Bookending the main chapters is a comprehensive introduction, written by Nandini Purandare, and a closing essay by Ashima Shiraishi, looking towards the future of the sport.