World Altitude Record (mountaineering) - Women's Altitude Record

Women's Altitude Record

Female mountaineers were rare in the early 20th century, and the maximum height attained by a woman lagged behind that claimed by male climbers. The first woman to climb extensively in the Karakoram was Fanny Bullock Workman, who made a number of ascents, including that of Pinnacle Peak, a 6,930 m (22,736 ft) subsidiary summit of Nun Kun, in 1906. Her claim on the women's altitude record was challenged by Annie Smith Peck in 1908 after she made an ascent of the north peak of Huascarán, which she claimed was higher than Pinnacle Peak. The ensuing controversy was bitter and public, and eventually resolved in Bullock Workman's favour when she hired a team of surveyors to measure the height of Huascarán. The north peak was found to be 6,648 m (21,812 ft) tall - some 600 m lower than Smith Peck's estimate.

In 1934 Hettie Dhyrenfurth became the first woman to exceed 7000 m when she climbed Sia Kangri (7,442 m, 24,370 ft). Her summit record would stand for 40 years, though her altitude record was broken by the French climber Claude Kogan, who reached approximately 7,600 m (25,000 ft) on Cho Oyu in 1954. The following year saw the first all-female team to visit the Himalaya, making the first ascent of Gyalgen Peak (6,700 m, 22,000 ft).

The first female ascent of an 8000 m peak came in 1974, when three Japanese women, Masako Uchida, Mieko Mori and Naoko Makaseko climbed Manaslu, at 8,156 m (26,758 ft). A year later Junko Tabei of Japan made the first female ascent of Mount Everest on 16 May 1975.

The highest mountain to have had a female first ascent is Gasherbrum III (7,952 m, 26,089 ft), which was first climbed by Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Wanda Rutkiewicz (along with two male climbers) in August 1975.