While on my journey in Nepal I got the chance to do some great reading. On my way out of the Himalaya I bargained with a shop keeper in Namche and acquired Arlene Blums, “Breaking Trail” for a mere 650 rupees. Arlenes story kept me company through Lukla, Kathmandu and ultimately my travels back to the Middle East.
Arlene’s book chronicles both her pioneering climbing career along with her extraordinary advancements in Chemistry. She is really pretty amazing: lead the first all women's trip on Denali, first American woman to attempt Everest, the "A Woman's Place is On Top" Annapurna trip AND a PhD with research that led to a Federal ban on the methyl-ethyl-death on childrens PJs. Like many other mountaineering books, Breaking Trail has rich descriptions of climbing expeditions that inspire day dreaming and personal goal setting.
One of the key themes of Arlene’s memoir is her perpetual challenge with sexism and anti-Semitism in climbing. A number of times in her book she references a July 1981, Outside Magazine article entitled “Has Women’s Climbing Failed?” The subtitle read, “Why has the Course of Women’s Climbing Led to Tragedy.” Regarding the article, she writes “it proclaimed in glossy detail that not only do women climbers tend to have inadequate skills and experience, they often climb for the wrong reason—to prove something about women.” Granted, this was 1981, but it got me wondering about how much things have changed.
This year saw the first ascent of all 14 8000 meter peaks by a woman. In 2005 Ines Papert wins the Ouray Ice Festival outright beating all women AND men by more then 2 minutes. In 1993 Lynn Hill frees The Nose. But what is the rest of the story?
Mostly, I write this because I’m floored that Outside would have published an article as inflammatory as that even in 1981. I mean hell, I was alive then! I wonder more, what they would write today, 30 years later. If I were to write the article and do the research, what would I find? Are women climbing now to prove something about women? And even if they are, is there anything wrong with that? How do women stack up in modern alpinism? If we aren’t equal, why not?
I realize that this could seem like a somewhat trite discussion on gender equality etc, but the fact remains, I’m curious about the answers to these questions, and I’m not sure where to find them. Ironically, when I Googled “outside and women’s climbing and failed” one of the first ten hits lead to an article about women firefighters and sexual discrimination. What those topics have to do with one another in a life other than mine I don’t know, but it got a chuckle out of me nonetheless.
So, whats the story ladies? What would Outside write today? I realize that this could start a shit storm, but so be it.
P.S. “Breaking Trail” is a great read and certainly a must for any women alpinists with a sense of history and pride for where we came from.
