High Altitude Heroines : Four Early Explorers in The High Himalayas

Among the usual stories of mountaineering and early exploration in the Himalayas are a few hidden gems—pioneering women who beat all odds defying the lazy stereotypes about gender to explore and conquer the high Himalayas.Contained in this magnificent collection of daring exploration are accounts by four of these ‘high altitude heroines’—Alexandra David-Néel Fanny Bullock Workman Henrietta Sands Merrick and Lilian A. Starr.Alexandra David-Néel writes about her 1923 secret expedition to Tibet and its capital Lhasa. Accompanied by a young lama Yongden she willingly suffers the harsh travel conditions frequent outbreaks of disease the ever-present danger of border control and the military to reach her goal becoming the first Western woman to reach the ‘forbidden city’.American geographer and travel writer Fanny Bullock Workman recounts her astonishing exploratory adventure in 1906 around Nun Kun the mountain massif located on the border of Jammu and Kashmir. Forty-seven years old at the time she conquers Pinnacle Peak without any modern equipment and encumbered in her voluminous skirts setting an altitude record for women.