Adventurous Women

The women profiled in this fascinating book defied the expectations of an age which expected women to stay at home. They pushed themselves to their physical limits to explore the beauty of nature and experience the thrill of an outdoor life. They hiked, paddled, climbed, and ventured far from civilization, and in doing so returned to their other lives stronger for the experience.

Including nine women from the 1800s and early 1900s, Miller combines the compelling stories of their lives with excerpts from the women's own writing about their adventures. Among them are Dora Keen, the first woman to ascend Mount Blackburn in Alaska. At that time, the mountain had yet to be climbed and despite avalanches and snowstorms, she achieved this incredible feat with a team of climbers in 1912. In her own words, Keen describes reaching the summit:

It was zero at midnight. Even at sunrise it was only 3 degrees....The final slope was steep and slippery, and even so high there were holes. We were a full hour climbing it, and when at length we thought the summit attained, we found that it was a half mile plateau on which a half hour 's wandering and use of the level were necessary in order to determine the highest point....Finally, however, at the northeast edge of the southeast summit we seemed to be standing on the top of Mt. Blackburn, all that were left of as, two of eight....Even a temperature of 6 degrees and an ice gale from which there was no shelter failed to mar the satisfaction of achievement in the accomplishment of a difficult task. It had taken four weeks.

Follow Mary Roberts Rinehart, famous writer and war correspondent, as she travels to the glorious terrain of Glacier National Park. Experience climbing with Marion Randall Parsons, Director of the Sierra Club for 20 years, who trekked countless peaks from the Sierras and Cascades to the Canadian Rockies.

All the daring women included in this book listened to the call of the wild. They took risks and wrote movingly of their experiences. The stories of their lives will captivate any reader, and their words will inspire any hopeful adventurer.