S1 • E15 Jun 10, 2020 10m
Annie Smith Peck (1850-1935), one of the first women in America to become a college professor, taught Latin, elocution, and archaeology, and took up mountain climbing in her forties. She gained international fame in 1895 when she first summited the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps -- not only for her daring ascent, but because she undertook the climb wearing pants rather than a cumbersome skirt. In 1908, at age 58 and after five failed attempts, Peck was the first mountaineer ever to conquer Mount Huascarán in Peru, one of the highest peaks in the Western Hemisphere (22,205 feet). The northern peak of the mountain was named Cumbre Aña Peck in her honor. A dedicated supporter of women's suffrage, she hung a "Votes for Women" banner on her summit of Mount Coropuna in Peru in 1911. She continued to climb mountains into her eighties. Interviewees: biographer Hannah Kimberley, author of A Woman's Place is at the Top: A Biography of Annie Smith Peck, Queen of the Climbers; mountaineer Vanessa O'Brien, who completed the Explorers Grand Slam, holds a Guinness World Record for summiting the Seven Summits in 295 days, the fastest time by a woman, and is the first American woman to summit K2.
