The diary of the High Sheriff of Kings County, now Co. Offaly, Ireland in 1868 records the arrival of the Tomasson family at Gortnamona House, Blue Ball, 5 miles south west of Tullamore. The house is about 500 yards south of the lake at Blue Ball called Loch na Phailis. (Pallas Lake). It was built by Moris O'Connor, son of John O'Connor, last Chief of the O'Connor's, and was leased to William Tomasson. William Tomasson knew the art of land reclamation and was successful in growing crops on what had been very boggy land from his experience on their lands at Grainfoot where about sixty acres on the hillsides close to the farm had been enclosed.
The family had some interaction with the Howard-Bury family of nearby Charleville Castle.
It was here in Gortnamona that Beatrice spent her formative years up to age 22. In 1882 she travelled to Potsdam, then part of Prussia, to work as a private tutor for the household of Prussian army General von Bülow. She was proficient in a number of European languages and worked on translations of books from German to English. How and where she received her education is unclear but likely to have been by home tuition under a tutor.
Tomasson moved to Innsbruck in 1885 where she took up mountain climbing. From 1892, she worked as a governess for Edward Lisle Strutt, whom she accompanied on numerous expeditions to Tyrol, Ötztal, the Stubai Alps and the Karwendel range. Despite Tommason being 15 years older than Strutt the family believed they were romantically involved. Tomasson became a member of the Austrian Alpine Club in 1893 and began to attempt major climbs in the Dolomites from 1896 onwards.
Tomasson began climbing with Michele Bettega, a mountain guide, in 1897. Together, they made the first ascents of Cima d'Alberghetto, Torre del Giubileo, Campanile della Regina Vittoria, Monte Lastei d'Agner, and Sasso delle Capre. In 1898 she made the first ascent of the northeast face of Monte Zebrù, which was considered at the time to be the most difficult ice wall to climb in the Tyrol, as well as the first ascent of Ortler and the second ascent of the west face of Laurinswand, which was considered to be the Dolomites' most difficult rock wall. She and Luigi Rizzi were the first climbers to summit the Dent di Mesdi via the south face in 1900. In July 1901 Tomasson, Bettega and Bartolo Zagonel made the first ascent of the south face of the Marmolada, which is considered her greatest climbing achievement. The route had been considered "the longest and most difficult climb in the Alps" for more than a decade, yet Tomasson's team made the ascent in just one day.
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For the duration of her mountaineering career, Tomasson worked as a governess for wealthy families in Innsbruck.
Beatrice was an 'extraordinary character, very determined', according to a statement by her relative Paul Demoge of Paris. Her determination was in those days a completely unfeminine attribute. Her niece Mrs Philomena Baynes (b.1928) from her husband's side of the family described her simply as 'masculine' and 'wiry'. 'Wiry' is an appropriate description of her character. No curls, hair combed straight back into a bun, and no smile on her face, a completely un-English aunt in her wonderful country house down in Sussex, was her niece's memory of Beatrice. 'We cousins in London had a nickname for our aunt: "the old hairpin".'
Beatrice died on the 13 February 1947 at the age of 87.
