What we are reading – Leading Out

Women take the lead in outdoor adventure

“Leading Out”, a collection of women’s writing on climbing and mountaineering, rarely sits on the shelf in the Deer Hill “library”. The book is a comprehensive collection of experiences from 20th century women climbers. It’s topics range from tecnical art of climbing, to the environmental impacts, to the love and friendships that develop between climbers. The characters range from pioneers like Miriam O’Brien Underhill, one of the first women to “lead” difficult rock climbs, without male guides, in the 1920′s, to Bachendri Pal, the first Indian women to summit Everest, in 1984.

The book begins with a telling comment by Miriam O’Brien Underhill about the limitations of “following” another in the mountains:

“Very early I realized that the person who invariably climbs behind a good leader, guide or amateur, may never really learn mountaineering at all, and in any case enjoys only a part of all the varied delights and rewards of climbing. He has, of course, the glorious mountain scenery, the exhilaration of physical acrobatics, the pleasure that comes from the exercise of skill, and these acrobatics often require skill to a considerable degree. But he is, after all, only following.

The one who goes up first on the rope has even more fun, as he solves the immediate problems of technique, tactics and strategy as they occur. And if he is also the leader, the one who carries the responsibility for the expedition, he tastes the supreme joys … I saw no reason why women, ipso facto, should be incapable of leading a good climb … I decided to try some climbs not only guideless but manless.”