Mary Petherick, also Mary Mummery (1859 – 1946) was a

mountaineer Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

and writer, who was the first woman to ascend the Teufelsgrat.

Biography

Petherick was born in 1859. Her father was J. W. Petherick, who was a solicitor from Exeter. She married Albert F. Mummery in 1883. Both she and her husband were excellent mountaineers, and often climbed together. In 1887, she, Mummery and

Alexander Burgener Alexander Burgener Alexander Burgener (10 January 1845, Saas Fee – 8 July 1910, near the Berglihütte) was a Swiss mountain guide and the first ascentionist of many mountains and new routes in the western Alps during the silver age of alpini ...

climbed the

Jungfrau The Jungfrau (, , , "maiden, virgin"), at is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönc ...

Zinalrothorn The Zinalrothorn at is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, Pennine Swiss Alps, Alps in Switzerland. Its name comes from the village of Zinal lying on the north side and from the German word ''Rothorn'' which means ''Red Peak''. When it was first cli ...

, Dreieckhorn, and the Taschorn, and on 15 July made the first ascent of the Teufelsgrat (the Devil's Ridge) in the process. They ended up reaching the peak in a thunderstorm. In the course of the ascent, Petherick took on the role of medical advisor - bandaging hands and checking for broken ribs. She also had a deep respect for alpine guides, praising Burgener as 'the great man of the party'. In Mummery's later book, ''My Climbs in the Alps and the Caucasus,'' he insisted that Petherick write the chapter on the ascent. In her chapter, she didn't just describe the ascent, but also used the publication as an opportunity to attack the sexism that was rife in mountaineering at the time. She wrote that: She died in 1946.

Historiography

Like many women mountaineers in the nineteenth century, such as

Lily Bristow Emily Caroline "Lily" Bristow (1864 – 5 August 1935) was an English mountaineer who made numerous ascents in the Swiss Alps with Albert F. Mummery in the 1890s. Early life Bristow was born in Brixton, Surrey, to George Ledgard Bristow (1827-1 ...

and Margaret Jackson, Petherick's achievements were little recognised at the time. In Petherick's case, despite her husband's support, his achievements overshadowed hers. Indeed, her husband is noted for saying that "All mountains appear doomed to pass through the stages: an inaccessible peak, the hardest climb in the Alps, an easy day for a lady. Petherick's writing continues to be quoted and her mountaineering achievements are increasingly recognised of significance. Her writing is also recognised for its humour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petherick, Mary 1859 births British women writers British nature writers 1946 deaths British mountain climbers British female climbers