On May 13th in 1995, Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to climb Everest without oxygen, which is quite the achievement considering many have lost their lives in their journey to the summit. We began to think about the unsung explorers and those women who risked their lives, and in the last few centuries, their reputation, in order to venture out and discover the unknown world. Here are five of our favourites….
1. Gertrude Bell 1868-1926
Probably best known for her influence on Iraq after the second World War, Bell was an accomplished adventurer who travelled the world twice. She was the first woman to have first class degree in History from Oxford, once became stranded while mountaineering in Switzerland for two days and taught herself the archaeology and languages of towns in the Middle East. She is buried in a city she helped to flourish, Baghdad.
2. Kira Salak 1971-
Salak is famous for visiting the Congo region on the trail of some mountain gorillas, but cites herself as a professional explorer. Smuggled into the country by Ukranian gun-runners, Salak later wrote an award winning paper about the events and the state the areas were in, including meeting with child soldiers.
3. Lady Hester Stanhope 1776-1839
Her first and perhaps one of her most daring feats, was an attempt to row a tiny boat to France from England; Lady Hester always had an eagerness to travel. When she was left a small fortune by the death of a relative, she left with a view of travelling the world. When her ship foundered off Rhodes, Hester began to wear men’s clothes. She began to believe some of the myths she had invented about herself and lived out her final days in walled up in a palace in Lebanon.
4. Nellie Bly 1864-1922
One hell of a lady, Nellie was perhaps one of our favourite explorers on the list. She first came to prominence when she went undercover to a mental hospital and wrote a full article about the condition the patients were living in. Bly was later asked to attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. Following a meeting with Jules Verne who was insistent it would take her 79 days at least, Bly made it back to New York in just over 72 days… along with a new pet monkey.
5. Sally Ride 1951-2012
Ride joined NASA in 1978 and in 1983 became the first, and youngest, woman to go to space. The famous astronaut spent more than 343 hours in space, becoming the first person to use the robot arm and the first to use the arm to retrieve a satellite. Ride set up her own programme in 2001 to target elementary and middle schools with entertaining science programmes and publications.
