Women can scale any mountain

MOUTAINEERING began as a sport in 1854, when Sir Alfred Wills climbed the Wetterhorn (3,701m), in the Swiss Alps. Mind you, a woman named Marie Paradis had got to the top of Mont Blanc (4,801m) 46 years earlier. However, early male climbers were determined to keep the mountains to themselves and females were not permitted to join the Alpine Club when it was formed in 1857.

But Victorian ladies considered that if a woman could be Queen then they could climb mountains, even if they had to do so in skirts. So, in 1858, when Miss Lucy Walker was told to take up walking as a cure for rheumatism, she took up climbing instead...