UKC

Anna Fleming explores the incredible life of Polish mountain climber Wanda Rutkiewicz.

Read more

The word "history" comes from Greek, "historia" meaning "knowledge gained by inquiry". It's not related to "his/him" so there's no need to reinvent the word to introduce gender.

The word 'Herstory' is a commonly used term for history written from a feminist perspective or from a woman's point of view, so there's no need not to understand the context in which it's used.

Really interesting piece: thanks for this.

A good article; for a fuller account of Wanda's life "A caravan of dreams" by Gertrude Reinisch is a good read. I found it in an Oxfam book shop.

No one said it had masculine connotations lol.

It's obviously just a play on words between History & Her Story. You really can winge about anything 😅

Superb article. Thanks for sharing!

Just to clarify, mural titled 'Women Know What They Do' is NOT in Łódź, it's in Wrocław. Great article.

Where have you been for the last 8 years niggle?! Welcome back.

 I think we should get this engraved in Latin onto UKC’s coat of arms (if we had one).

‘vos vere potest aliquid de alis’ 

given how much climbing as an activity is subdivided by different notions of what ‘doing it the right way’ means, i daresay this could be the motto of climbing as a whole.

Also "Freedom Climbers" by Bernadette McDonald for the wider context

https://books.google.com/books/about/Freedom_Climbers.html?id=vKmsAwAAQBAJ#...

Very Johnsonian. 

Excellent article and great photos.

A story of success in the face of astonishing adversity which deserves re-telling. 

I'm not certain that disappearing on a solo attempt on Kanchenjunga entirely counts as success. She was very driven, perhaps beyond her physical capacity at 49. RIP.

How about the gender neutral iztory? I haven’t seen this used but it’s probably used by some people. Not criticising your comment, just expanding on the theme.

When I did history at Uni 20 years ago, I don’t think herstory was a thing, or at least I don’t recall hearing about it. I imagine that would be different now - which is a good thing. 

'herstory' was around back in the 1980s in feminist publications like Sparerib, maybe even earlier. But as noted above, its a bit stupid as the 'his' in history doesn't come from the word 'his'.

If you think the term was adopted to make a point about etymology, sure, that would be stupid. I think it's fairly evident that's not the point and I don't really understand why anyone would try to suggest that it is.

'herstory' was around back in the 1980s in feminist publications like Sparerib, maybe even earlier. But as noted above, its a bit stupid as the 'his' in history doesn't come from the word 'his'.

Maybe we could use 'hystory'?

What a snide comment. Did you actually read the article? Too many to list again but her successes were awesome. 

Was Al Rouse a successful mountaineer? Or Tom Patey? Alison Hargreaves? Accidental or early death doesn't make you unsuccessful.

As for being driven, aren't we all? Or are only men allowed to be driven because of their "physical capacity". 

It was in no way intended to be snide, just a comment on an ultimately tragic end. Apologies if it seemed harsh.

Didn't seem snide to me (perhaps a little harsh, but again, in my book acceptable)

To save all the arguments, why don't we use ἱστορία

Yes, it's me. I pretty much never visit the site. I'm generally interested in climbing not THE AGENDA so there's pretty much nothing in THE AGENDA that's interesting for me. It's worth having a look at 8a.nu, I guarantee you'll be blown away by how much is actually happening in rock climbing but you'll never see it here. We're living in a golden age of equality and achievement in the sport/art, not a nightmare of patriarchal oppression.

What's THE AGENDA?

I agree. I had the good fortune to find it last week in Outside in Hathersage. Bought it on the spot. Seems to have held its value! Quite right too..... I couldn't put it down.  Very honest book, with the author (Gertrude Reinisch) not pulling punches at times.  

Bravo Wanda, you heroic warrior.  Flawed - but who isn't?  We remember you. 

You're back! Welcome! 👍

Thanks for popping by to let us know. “Golden age” does somewhat suggest something transient though.

I prefer your older material.