The first illustrated book to celebrate the remarkable stories and achievements of twenty of the most daring women mountaineers from around the globe 

 "Mountaineering Women provides long‑awaited recognition for the many pioneering women who have made invaluable contributions to the history of climbing." – Sir Chris Bonington

Mountaineering Women is the first publication of its kind – a richly illustrated collection of the astonishing and often surprising stories that celebrate the achievements of twenty women climbers, spanning both history and the globe. As adventure pursuits like climbing and mountaineering continue to gain popularity, women's visibility in those sports has also come under the spotlight.  

 From the Amazigh (Berbers) of the Atlas Mountains to the Inca Empire, high in the Andes, women have long traversed the world's most forbidding peaks. When, many centuries later, mountaineering took off as a sporting activity in the West, a few plucky Victorian women defied convention and tackled the fabled summits of the European Alps. Even though women have a pronounced and rich history in the sport, they are conspicuously absent from mountaineering literature. Mountaineering Women seeks to redress a narrative that frequently focuses on the exploits of white, male 'explorers'.  

Climbers featured come from a wide range of nations and include Junko Tabei, Lynn Hill, Lydia Bradey, Brette Harrington and others. Each of their compelling stories is accompanied by a specially commissioned ink illustration and evocative black-and-white photographs. Three 16-page photographic sections reveal the mountaineers in action and the mountainscapes in all their grandeur. A hopeful foreword by British runner Jasmin Paris MBE sets the scene, and bookending the main chapters are a comprehensive introduction, written by Nandini Purandare, and a closing essay by Ashima Shiraishi, looking towards the future of the sport. 

Joanna Croston moved to the Canadian Rockies in 1998, where she is currently the Director of Mountain Culture at the Banff Centre Mountain Film & Book Festival. She has climbed many of the classic 11,000-ft peaks in the area. Her writing has appeared in Highline Magazine, Gripped, The Canadian Alpine Journal, Mountain Life and Alpinist.