Lucy Walker on the Matterhorn

Lucy Walker · 1871 CE · Earth

Lucy Walker on the Matterhorn — Lucy Walker · 1871 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Be the first woman on the summit of the Matterhorn, ahead of Meta Brevoort.

Historical context

Six years after the disaster the Matterhorn had been climbed eighteen times, by Frederick Gardiner's later count, all by men, though in 1867 a Valtournenche guide's daughter had come within about 350 feet of the top. Lucy Walker of Liverpool had been climbing with her father and brother since 1858, and with the Oberland guide Melchior Anderegg since 1859, in a white print dress, without much notice outside her party. In July 1871, by Ronald Clark's account, one of Meta Brevoort's guides let slip to Anderegg that the American was ready to try the Matterhorn; Anderegg hurried to the Walkers at Zermatt, they went up on 20 and 21 July, and Punch printed verses about it.

The voyage, step by step

  1. News of Miss Brevoort

    July 1871

    In July 1871, by Ronald Clark's account, one of Meta Brevoort's guides lets slip to Melchior Anderegg that the American has everything ready to climb the Matterhorn. Anderegg hurries to Zermatt, where he knows the Walkers can be found, and plans are quickly made.

  2. The Walker party sets out

    20 July 1871

    On 20 July 1871 the party leaves Zermatt for the Matterhorn by the Zermatt side, the route of 1865: Lucy Walker, her father Frank, sixty-five years old by Gardiner's account and already ill, their friend Frederick Gardiner, and Melchior Anderegg, who leads them.

  3. A night on the mountain

    20 July 1871

    Her list gives the climb as two days, 20 and 21 July, so the party spends a night on the mountain; the sources do not say where. By then the Zermatt side had a shelter: a hut on the east face, close to the crest of the Hörnli ridge, at 12,526 feet by Whymper's figure, about 3,820 metres.

  4. The first woman on the Matterhorn

    21 July 1871

    On 21 July 1871, the date Frederick Gardiner gave, Lucy Walker stands on the summit of the Matterhorn, 4,478 metres by the modern survey. Gardiner counted it the nineteenth ascent of the mountain and the first by a lady. Her father, sixty-five by Gardiner's account, stands beside her on what proves to be his last great ascent.

  5. Miss Brevoort arrives

    July 1871

    A few days later, by Ronald Clark's account, Meta Brevoort reaches Zermatt and is greeted with the news that the young lady has just come down from the Matterhorn. She does not give up. On 5 September, with her nephew W. A. B. Coolidge and the guides Christian and Ulrich Almer and Nicholas Knubel, she reaches the summit at 7 in the morning by the Zermatt route and goes down by the Breuil route, the first crossing of the mountain by a lady.

  6. A Climbing Girl

    26 August 1871

    On 26 August 1871 Punch prints A Climbing Girl: a lady has clomb to the Matterhorn's summit, which almost like a monument points to the sky. No glacier could baffle, no precipice balk her, no peak rise above her, however sublime; give three times three cheers for intrepid Miss Walker.

Outcome

The summit on 21 July 1871, by Gardiner's account, with her father, Frederick Gardiner and Melchior Anderegg, the nineteenth ascent of the mountain by Gardiner's count and the first by a lady; Brevoort reached Zermatt days later and on 5 September made the first crossing of the mountain by a lady, from Zermatt to Breuil.

Lucy Walker

A Liverpool merchant's daughter who climbed in a white print dress from 1858 to 1879, mostly with the guide Melchior Anderegg, and on 21 July 1871 became, by her companion Frederick Gardiner's account, the first woman on the summit of the Matterhorn.

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Sources

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