Climbing Days (Main – Canons)

A forgotten classic of 1920s mountaineering literature; Dorothy Pilley broke new ground for women in a sport dominated by men with her true account of adventure, endurance and daring

Dorothy Pilley was a pioneer of women’s climbing a hundred years ago. She founded a club celebrating women’s climbing and – starting in Wales, the Lake District and Skye – she went on to climb the major mountain ranges of Europe throughout the 1920s. She was instrumental in helping to take women on a mountain from being seen as a dangerous liability on the rock to serious mountaineers with impressive records on bravery, skill and endurance.

First published in 1935 and reissued in 1965, the book is a daredevil tale of adventure, near-death slips and rapturous achievement in high places, interleaved with moments highlighting the particular challenges of being a woman in a sport seen as the province of men.