Edwina Fay Fuller (October 10, 1869 – May 27, 1958) was an American journalist, mountaineer and schoolteacher. In 1890 she became the first woman to reach the summit of

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

Biography

Fay Fuller was born in 1869 in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

to Ann E. and Edward N. Fuller. In 1882, when Fuller was 12 years old, her family relocated to

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, where she began to explore the wilderness. After graduating from high school, Fuller began teaching at the age of 15, eventually moving to work in Yelm, Washington. While teaching in Yelm, her school was visited by P. B. Van Trump, one of the first climbers to ascend

, with whom she became friends and who would inspire her to climb Rainier herself.

Mount Rainier

Fuller made her first attempt on Rainier in 1887 at age 18, reaching an elevation of approximately and setting a goal to someday "climb to the summit of the great peak". In 1890 she was invited by Van Trump to join a climbing party for a second attempt at climbing the mountain. On the afternoon of August 10, she and four teammates reached Columbia Crest, Rainier's highest summit, making her the first woman to have climbed the mountain. The next climbing party on the mountain found Fuller's hair pins on the route and joked that this proved "a woman really had made it to the summit".

Journalism

Fuller gave up teaching to become a journalist like her father, an editor of several Tacoma newspapers, with whom she found her first reporting job as the first female reporter for the '' Tacoma Ledger''. Following her successful ascent of Mount Rainier, she was given a column titled "Mountain Murmurs" in which she covered mountaineering social events near Paradise, Washington and accounts by earlier climbers of Rainier. She also played a significant role in developing the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

climbing community: she helped to found the Washington Alpine Club in 1891, the Tacoma Alpine Club in 1893, and the Mazamas mountaineering club in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

in 1894.

Later life and legacy

Fuller left Tacoma in 1900 to continue her career in journalism in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In New York, she met and married Fritz von Briesen, an attorney. They later moved to

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. After inheriting land from her father in law after his death, Mrs. von Briesen donated it to the city of New York, which became Von Briesen Park. Fuller died in 1958 at the age of 88. Fay Peak in Mount Rainier National Park was named after her. In 2021, Fuller was inducted into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Fay 1869 births 1958 deaths American women educators American women journalists 19th-century American sportswomen American female mountain climbers Journalists from Washington (state) Schoolteachers from Washington (state) Writers from Tacoma, Washington Sportspeople from Tacoma, Washington Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery