Climbing Days
By (Author) Dorothy Pilley
Introduction by Dan Richards
Canongate Books
Canongate Canons
1st October 2024
4th July 2024
Main - Canons
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Travel writing
Feminism and feminist theory
796.522082
Paperback
400
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 23mm
274g
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.
'A true classic. An invitation to be bold, have fun and find the best words for adventure' - HELEN MORT
'Fizzes with energy, crackles with chutzpah - a groundbreaking account of a pioneering life' - ROBERT MACFARLANE
'A superb chronicle of vertiginous exploits and derring do . . . a luminous, questing mountain odyssey' - DAN RICHARDS
'Some climbing books grant you insights into geography, or topology, or human psychology. Some climbing books simply scare you to death. Just now and then, there's one that conveys the sheer fun of it all' - RONALD TURNBULL
'Throughout history, there have been British women at the forefront of climbing, on both a national and global scale. Dorothy Pilley is one such lady' - Natalie Berry
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Dorothy Pilley (1894-1986) was a trailblazing writer and mountaineer who led the way for women's climbing and co-founded the Pinnacle Club for women in 1921. She climbed ridges and sheer faces around the world, creating a legacy that is admired to this day. In 1928, together with her husband I.A. Richards and Swiss Guides Joseph and Antoine Georges, she pioneered a route up the north- north-west ridge of the Dent Blanche in Switzerland. Climbing Days, a celebrated memoir of her early life and climbs, was published in 1935.