Women on High: Pioneers of Mountaineering

These tales of courageous women of centuries past will captivate anyone who loves a good story of the mountains. In Women on High, Rebecca A. Brown traces the lives and achievements of the inspiring women of mountaineering's early days, who bravely bucked convention to pursue a passion for standing atop the world's highest places. Defying Victorian perceptions of women as frail, delicate creatures, these bold women traveled above and beyond where women--and most men--had gone before.

More than a retelling of first ascents and summits climbed, Women on High delves into the heart of what compelled these women to break with tradition to pursue these high peaks: the quest for independence, the search for spiritual and personal fulfillment, and the longing to step outside proscribed gender boundaries. Brown's riveting portraits of these pioneers of mountaineering reveal how their astonishing ascents of some of the world's highest summits are as extraordinary today as they were more than one hundred years ago.