Henriette D’angeville was the first woman to climb Mount Blanc in the Alps, despite everyone advising her not to try it.
Decades later, Julia Archibald Holmes (a friend of John Brown’s) became the first woman to summit Pike’s Peak, a feat that Pike himself never did.
Transcription of Henriette:
In August of 1838, when Henriette D’angeville finally decided to try climbing Mount Blanc, her doorstep was met with a practical parade of naysayers. People from her life and complete strangers showed up to talk her out of it.
What are you thinking! No woman has ever climbed that mountain before.
Well actually Maria Paradis did it back in 1808!
But she was unconscious and had to be carried to the top!
That will not happen to me. I will be fine.
You won’t! You will die and it will be terrible. The cold, the air pressure, the lack of oxygen, the physical stress. It will be too much.
Men do it all the time. I’m locking my door. Please leave me alone.
I guess that’s why they call you Henriette dangerville.
No one calls me that. It’s D’angeville.
But it’s pretty close to Dangerville, no? Don’t you think that is fitting?
No I don’t.
Okay sure, whatever you say Madame Dangerville!
Au revoir! Please leave me alone.
<slam>
Henriette D’Angeville’s first name is spelled like Henriette, but since she was French it’s pronounced, something like, Henriette. Any way you say it, she was born in France, as you have probably deduced. It was 1794, smack dab in the middle of the French Revolution, which took its toll on her aristocratic family. It also took her grandfather’s head – if ya know what I mean. Her father spent time in prison as a result of the Revolution, as well. But he got to keep his head. After being freed, her family moved to eastern France, where she grew up in sight of the Alps.
The mountain range, with its mighty formations, snow covered and bold against the sky, captured her imagination, and filled her with a burning desire. This was a desire she could carry with her all of her life. Her youth was spent running the hills with her brothers as the mountains loomed nearby. She even wrote in journals at the time how she preferred the dramatic mountains to plains or farmlands, or cities.
When Henriette moved to Geneva Switzerland, just across a twisty-turny border with France, she found herself even more in the midst of the imposing Alps. Spanning eight European countries, the Alpine mountain range has 82 peaks over 13,000 feet – or 4000m. The tallest of all 82 is Mount Blanc – near the border of France and Italy. This is the mountain that fate had in store for Henriette. But one does not simply walk up the tallest mountain in the Alps. If you want to conquer the world, it’s often wise to start small.
Walks, strenuous walks, became her passion as an adult. The freedom, the feeling of wonder at the world, and the space to think – and to grow one’s ambition, became increasingly important to her. Before long her walks made pathways into mountains, and then she began to reach summits. She discovered that up high on mountain tops, she didn’t find herself terribly troubled by many of the problems others had complained of at such high altitudes – loss of breath, dizziness, or luckily, unconsciousness.
In mountain climber lingo, summit can be a verb meaning making it to the top or summit of a mountain. And with several summits under her belt, she finally made her goal the tallest mountain in the Alps – Mount Blanc. Bad weather and other factors set her back several times, but in 1838, at the age of 44, she got ready for an attempt.
Everyone tried to talk her out of it. Her doctor, her priest, heck the baker selling bread at the market warned her against it. She said in her city of 25,000 people, precisely 3 people encouraged her. Everyone else either told her it was too dangerous, or that a woman couldn’t do such a thing. Plenty of people actually bet money against her success. Eventually they realized that their thoughts mattered not to Henriette.
The first climb to the top of Mount Blanc came the decade before she was born, and then in 1808, when Henriette was 14, Maria Paradis became the first woman to make it to the top – with help. At the end of the journey, Maria was practically delirious and remembered almost nothing from the summit, other than the bright white of the snow. This likely kept other women from trying for the next 30 years. All along she believed in her abilities – and her reasons. She told others “that women see and feel things differently than men,” so perhaps her perspective would be invaluable. Unfortunately the only woman to make it up there thus far, barely remembered anything. Plus it was just an experience that she wanted to have.
In preparation, Henriette hired several guides, who in turn hired porters – people to carry all of the necessities for the adventure. It was expected to take 3 days and two nights. But thanks to the demanding conditions it would require a lot of things – think of the temperature – and think of the calories they would burn as their bodies struggled up the cold mountain.
Okay, let’s see that’s two legs of mutton, two sides of veal, 24 roast chickens, 6 loaves of bread, 18 bottles of wine, 12 lemons, 3 lbs of sugar, 3lbs of chocolate, and 3 lbs of prunes, flagons of barley water and lemonade, a pot of chicken broth. One enormous fan in case any one needs to be given air, cucumber face cream, a telescope, a looking glass, and a notebook and pencils.
Jeez that seems like a lot for 3 days. Now what about clothes?
What about clothes, indeed? Henriette’s outfit weighed around 21 pounds. She ore a heavy shirt, a fleece-lined jacket and trousers with six layers of wool, a leather belt, a fur-lined bonnet with a green veil, a straw hat, a black velvet mask, a black boa, a plaid coat, a fur-lined cloak, and boots with nails on the bottom like cleats. These were of course, large enough for the many layers of silk and wool stockings covering her feet. She later complained that she had forgotten to pack shaded lenses – sunglasses. But otherwise she was well outfitted for movement and warmth.
When they set out at 6am from the town of Chamonix, nearly the entire population of the French hamlet cam came out to cheer them on – they wished her well, urged her to be safe, steady, and strong. Go Dangerville!
And as Henriette and her group began up the mountain, many watched their progress over the following days with telescopes. The climb was hard, and cold. They jumped chasms, climbed steep ice cliffs, and saved themselves from sliding down the mountain by jabbing the pointy end of their alpenstocks into the ice and snow. Them made it about 10,000 feet up before setting up camp, where a couple other parties were also camping.
That night, she tossed and turned and tried to warm her freezing body. There was little sleep. But despite the pain, the view that greeted her when she looked out of her tent flaps pulled her onward. When they awoke the next day – at 2AM! – Henriette ate 12 prunes and set out ready to go. That was all she would eat for the next 16 hours – and the next 16 hours were terribly demanding hours to say the least.
As they got higher, the group had to contend with more than the cold – the high altitude brought migraines, nausea, and exhaustion to nearly everyone. Nevertheless, they all continued up towards the peak. The closer to the top they got, the drowsier and more lethargic Henriette felt. The low oxygen air, coupled with the exhaustion, extreme cold, lack of sleep, and long-gone nourishment of a dozen prunes were really getting to her. At one point she was barely awake – asleep on her feet. The guides offered to carry her. She refused and perked up. By the end of the day, the end was in sight, and while most of the steps that day were a struggle, that last few came easily to her. Finally at the top, she was amazed by what she saw. The world extended around her in 365 degrees and she could see for miles. Years of desire and effort, paid off. Of course, she wanted to stay and really soak it in, but a storm was approaching which would have been near certain doom. They couldn’t stay long, but before heading back down, her guides had something for her – for one last moment they would help her go higher than anyone else ever had. The men lifted her on their shoulders and held her as high as they could manage. At that very moment in September of 1838, she was most certainly the highest person on earth. No one was above her.
One thing about mountains – going down can be much faster than going up, and Henriette’s experience on Mount Blanc was no different. One more night was spent on the mountain as they worked their way down. The storm that had chased them from the top threatened them, so tents would not work – they’d probably blow away. So the party wedged themselves into icy crevices and slept in sleeping bags, protected from the weather by ice and stone in mountainous cracks. As the mountain turned to back to forest before reaching the town of Chamonix again, they came upon a donkey, which they realized had been left for Henriette to ride. She refused this too. Believing it would make her look like she was too tired to carry herself back. So she walked the rest of the way, and found a town full of people who had been watching through telescopes ready to celebrate her victory.
Maybe we should rename Chamonix Dangerville!
No. I don’t want that.
Well what about a party?
Okay but I’d like to invite a special guest.
Now 60 years old, Maria Paradis, the only other woman to reach the top of Mount Blanc, joined the celebration and the two women shared their experiences with one another.
Some thought that finally conquering Mount Blanc would satisfy Henriette. Were they right? They were worse than right. They were wrong. For the rest of her life, she was taking strenuous walks and climbing mountains. In fact over the next 25 years, she kept climbing – ultimately making it to the top of 21 different Alpine mountains. Including one called the Oldenhorn, which she did at the age of 69. That would be her last. Henriette D’Angeville died in 1871 – the same year that another famous climber, Lucy Walker became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn.
Transcript of Julia:
Bleeding Kansas was a lot like it sounds. There was a lot of blood. In Kansas. Yes, it was a violent and dangerous time around in that area as Americans fought one another over a moral issue that would soon lead to Civil War.
In 1854, America was in turmoil. People were eager to expand westward and create states out of land west of the Mississippi River, which had been, of course, ancestral lands for Native people for centuries. But Americans were split over slavery. There had been a compromise – the Missouri Compromise which set a geographic border along the 36 parallel – a line of measurement around the globe that runs through the middle of America. By that agreement, any new states to the north of the line would be free states, and any below it would allow for slavery. That happened in 1820, but in 1854 a new law was passed – the Kansas Nebraska Act, which allowed for the people populating a new state to decide whether it would be a free state, or a state that allowed slavery – the forced servitude of other human beings. This brought thousands of people to Kansas and Nebraska and surrounding areas. Abolitionists wanted new states to be free, as they wished to end slavery in America entirely – so they came in great numbers. Pro-slavery people also filled the area. Before long, there was terror and violence.
One of the most famous people who came was a man named John Brown. John Brown wanted to end slavery so badly that he had no problem committing violence against those who stood in his way. A few years later, he’d head to Harper’s Ferry and try to lead a slave revolt in Virginia. His cause was just – ending slavery was necessary. He did not survive his mission, yet many believe his actions propelled the country to the Civil War, which legally ended slavery.
Another person who came to Bleeding Kansas was a young woman named Julia Archibald. Julia had been born in Canada – Nova Scotia to be precise. But when she was young her parents moved to Massachussets. Ma and Pa Archibald were outspoken and held many strong and well founded beliefs. They believed women should have the same rights as men, which was radical at the time. As early suffragists the family fought for women’s right to vote – but they were also abolitionists. They wanted slavery to end. This was how her dad met John Brown. And soon after moving to Kansas, Brown was a common face in the Archibald’s world. And John Brown wasn’t alone – he had a group of others who worked with him. One of those people was a young man was James Holmes. As an anti-slavery friend of Brown’s, Julia figured they’d get along well.
Before long the two got married. But in the years before the Civil War, the couple had a desire to head even further west. In 1858, when they heard about of a wagon train of prospectors heading through Colorado, James and Julia joined the party. They weren’t looking for gold like the others, but adventure and opportunity in New Mexico – where they’d lend their efforts to combating slavery in the western territories.
The wagon train was as long bumpy ride, and Julia was at first happy to learn that another woman was amongst the group – together they were the only two. But it became clear that this woman wanted nothing to do with Julia. She was probably turned off by the fact that Julia wore pants.
Pants?
Yes. Pants. Can you believe it?
Not a dress?
NO! Pants! With two legs and waistband! Crazy huh?
Unwilling to associate with a pro-suffrage abolitionist in pants, this woman chose to stay inside her covered wagon for nearly the whole journey – unwilling to interact with Julia. Which must have been brutal because it was hot!
When the wagon train approached Pikes Peak in present day Colorado, Julia grew infatuated with the incredibly tall mountain. It was gigantic, and majestic, and seemed to beckon her and others in the party. Pikes Peak is the tallest mountain in the Front Range section of the Rocky Mountains. It was named after a guy with a great name: Zebulon Pike. Ol’ Zeb was an explorer who was making his way through the west on a mission that overlapped the time span that Lewis and Clark were also exploring a more northerly route. Those two tend to get all the glory these days, but at least Zebulon Pike got an imposing mountain named after him.
Here’s a little secret about Zebulon: He never made it to the top of his own peak. More like Zebulon SIKE!
He tried. He tried real hard, but the mountain beat him. When he tried with a group of teammates they had little to eat, were underdressed and the temperature at the base of the mountain was close to 0, meaning it only got colder higher up. So understandably he and his men turned back after a few days.
Julia Archibald Homes was not one to turn back though. After a few men from the party made an ascent, she decided she wanted try as well. So she and her husband and two other men started climbing, almost on a whim.
Along with blankets, clothes and basic equipment, they carried a pound of meat, a pound of coffee, a pound of sugar, and nineteen loaves of bread, which seems like an awful lot of bread and not much of anything else – especially considering the feast of food from the last story! She wore pants, as you might assume, and carried a book of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which she intended to read at the top of the mountain.
Considering this, it’s no wonder her own language written during the climb was so poetic.
There is music from the foaming stream, sounds from a dozen little cascades near and far blend together. A thundering sound, a rushing sound, a rippling sound and a tinkling sound there are – and a thousand shades of sound to fill up between them.
As they climbed on, the temperature dropped and their path became dangerously slick – at times they actually took their shoes off because their bare feet offered them a safer grip than the soles of their shoes.
After camping several nights, they made their final push to the top on August 5th 1858. They left most of their belongings at camp. Julia carried only paper, pencil, and her book by Ralph Waldo Emerson. They soaked in the view from 14,110 feet above the world, wrote letters to friends, and read some poetry aloud. After leaving their names, carved in a stone, they made their way back down.
I have accomplished the task which I marked out for myself, and now I feel amply repaid for all my toil and fatigue. Nearly every one tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed; and now, here I am, and I feel that I would not have missed this glorious sight for anything at all. In all probability, I am the first woman who has ever stood upon this wonderous scene, which my eyes now behold.
She did what Pike himself never did – summitted Pikes Peak- a pride she carried for the rest of her life. Not long after returning to the base of the mountain the wagon train split up. The Holmes’ went to New Mexico, where they worked in newspapers and made people angry with their views of suffrage and slavery.
After having four children, Julia worked in Washington DC where she was the first woman to work for the US. Board of Education. She was also very involved in the growing Suffrage movement – officially serving as an officer in the national organization working to get women the right to vote. She was a delegate at the 1869 national women’s suffrage association convention.
You should also know that while working for the US Department of the Interior, she made sure her pay was equal to that of the men who were her colleagues. And in 1871, though it was illegal, she made a very public attempt to register to vote.
Unlike her mountain climbing trans-Atlantic sister from another mister, Henriette D’angeville, Julia didn’t seem drawn to more mountains. Pikes Peak was the one and only mountain Julia Archibald Holmes would climb. Hard to top, really.
But she wasn’t the last woman to climb Pikes Peak. Many have, but notably in 1893, Thirty-four years after Julia read an Emerson poem on the peak, another woman, Katherine Lee Bates made it to the top and was inspired to write a poem of her own. Her poem, which includes the visions of purple mountain majesties and amber waves of grain soon became a song – America the Beautiful.
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