The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs, An Account of Four Seasons' Mountaineering on the Southern Alps of New Zealand
London: George Allen & Unwin, 1915.
First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 7.25 x 10.5 inches,xv, 250, (1) pp, with index, illustrations from photographs (some tipped in). Inscribed (partially by hand, partially ink-stamped) on the front free endpaper "To the Alpine Club of Canada with the Compliments of" [the] New Zealand Government, Department of Tourist and Health Resorts. Alpine Club bookplate on front pastedown. Boards slightly bowed inward, else a fine copy in original brown cloth. Freda du Faur (1882-1935) grew up in the Australian bush, far from any mountains. But after visit to New Zealand in 1906, she became interested in climbing and soon discovered an aptitude for the sport. In 1910, clad in a shockingly short skirt, she became the first woman to reach the summit of New Zealand's highest peak, 12,218-ft Mt. Cook. Three years later she returned and completed the "grand traverse" of the mountain's three distinct summits, an accomplishment still considered one of the most impressive in New Zealand climbing (Mazel). Her female friends implored her not to risk her reputation by going off alone with male guides and climbers for days on end, but she declared "that if my reputation was so fragile a thing that it would not bear such a test, then I would be very well rid of a useless article."
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