Highs and Lows

Twenty-two years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest, Junko Tabei — who had previously conquered another Himalayan giant, Annapurna III — became the first woman to set foot on the putative “roof of the world.” She was the only member from her Japanese team to reach the top, prevailing despite an avalanche that blasted her tent away at camp 2. Her triumph, in 1975, came during International Women’s Year, declared by the United Nations, and she became an inspiration.

Given that thousands of mountaineering books have been published since the first ascent of Mont Blanc, in 1786, it’s hard to believe there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of female climbers. Joanna Croston’s impressive Mountaineering Women tells how trailblazers such as Tabei embraced an activity that for many decades was deemed unladylike. A highly experienced climber and the director of the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, Croston whittled down her...