Womens participation in sport in general, during the 19th century, was somewhat frowned upon by society.
[The ascent of women, how female mountaineers explored the Alps 1850-1900. Clare A. Roche]
However, in relation to climbing mountains, three names come to mind:
1. Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed (26 June 1860 – 27 July 1934;)
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| Lizzy (Wikipedia) |
2. Mrs Main;
3. Mrs Aubrey le Blond.
5.Mrs Tyndall
The first three names refer to the same person. Usually known after her third marriage as Mrs Aubrey Le Blond and to her climbing friends as Lizzie Le Blond, was an Irish pioneer of mountaineering at a time when it was almost unheard of for a woman to climb mountains. In effect she was 'The first Irish Woman Alpinist' (see Joss Lynam in IMEHS Journal, Vol 3, pp 11; Mountaineering Ireland & Frank Nugent - In search of Peaks, Passes...)
She grew up in Greystones, County Wicklow, in the south-east of Ireland, where her father owned quite a bit of land. However, her father then died in 1871, leaving no other children, while she was still a minor, and the Lord Chancellor took her on as his ward.
She who raised in Killincarrick House, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, where her childhood was said to be happy, playing in the countryside with a devoted mother, and after the death of her father she was left to inherit Killincarrick House along with nearly 2,000 acres of land spreading across Dublin, Meath and Wicklow at the age of eleven years.
At eighteen she entered London society, and shortly afterwards, on 25 June 1879, married Captain Fred Burnaby, soldier, intrepid adventurer, aspiring politician and best-selling author.
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| Frederick Burnaby by James Jacques Joseph Tissot oil on panel, 1870 NPG 2642 |
The Burnaby’s only child, a son, was born in May 1880. Some months later and reportedly in poor health, Elizabeth left London for Switzerland.
Her first significant ‘scramble’ was made almost by accident: having planned a leisurely excursion to the lower slopes of Mont Blanc, she and a woman friend, clad ‘in high-heeled buttoned boots and shady hats’, spontaneously decided to climb further. Having spent the night on the mountain, Elizabeth’s appetite for further adventure was whetted. During the following summer she completed several difficult ascents and scaled Mont Blanc twice. Over the next two decades she spent much of her time in Switzerland, climbing in both winter and summer and making more than one hundred ascents. She defied convention by occasionally climbing without a guide, and in 1900 took part in what is regarded as the first women-only expedition.
Later in her climbing career, she abandoned Switzerland for the far north, and over six summers in the Norwegian Arctic notched up a total of thirty-three climbs, twenty-seven of them first ascents. On 17 January 1886 Elizabeth was widowed when Burnaby was killed in battle in the Sudan. Her second husband, Dr John Frederic Main, died in Denver, Colorado in 1892, and in 1900 she married Aubrey Le Blond.
By this time she had more or less retired from climbing, but she remained one of the sport’s best-known spokeswomen, and in 1907 founded and was elected president of the Ladies’ Alpine Club, the first climbing association for women in the world. (Rosemary Raughter )
She was also an author and a photographer of mountain scenery. Many of Lizzie’s photographs were included in her own and others’ publications, while others were used to illustrate her lantern lectures, including one entitled ‘Mountaineering from a woman’s point of view’. She also became involved at an early stage in film-making: a 1902 catalogue lists ten of her short films, all set in Switzerland, featuring bob-sleigh racing, tobogganing and figure skating, making her the world’s first mountain filmmaker as well as one of the first female filmmakers. She was one of the first to photograph winter sports and the first person to make short cine films in 1899 to illustrate the growing popularity of winter sports.
In 1883 Elizabeth Le Blond became the first climber of any gender to publish an English book on winter mountaineering: The High Alps in Winter, part memoir and part how-to guide. Of her motivations for first winter ascents, she wrote: “I was never sure, when starting, whether the thing was practicable or not, and this uncertainty gave the excursion a flavor of excitement which was very enjoyable. Besides (shall I be honest enough to admit it?) to do something which no one else had done is pleasant.”
View a collection of her pictures here:
Martin and Osa Johnson SAFARI MUSEUM
Some of her works:
The high Alps in winter, or mountaineering in search of health – published 1883
Mountaineering in the Land of the Midnight Sun
Adventures on the Roof of the World
True Tales of Mountain Adventure: For non-climbers Young and Old
High Life of Towers and Silence
Day In, Day Out. (autobiography).
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