Trail Blazers

Arlene Blum has played a groundbreaking role in women's mountaineering. Best known for leading the first American-and all-women's-ascent of Annapurna I, considered one of the world's most dangerous and difficult mountains, Blum also led the first women's team up Mt. McKinley; was the first American woman to attempt Mt. Everest; and has played a leading role in more than 20 mountain expeditions worldwide. She made the first traverse of the Great Himalaya Range of Bhutan, Nepal and India and hiked the length of the European Alps with her baby daughter on her back.
See her book list >      Visit her website >

 

 

Ellen MacArthur

 

 

Sally Ride

 

 

Sylvia Earle

 

 

Historical Trail Blazers - Women Adventurers Throughout History

Margaret Bourke-White, Photojournalist and Social Activist - In the beginning, there was Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971). One of the trailblazers in twentieth century photojournalism, Bourke-White played an historic role in media and women’s history. As a woman photojournalist, her reputation rivaled Ida Tarbell, the muckraker who exposed the abuses of Standard Oil, in its impact on modern journalism. Bourke-White became an internationally famous photographer and holds many “firsts” in her portfolio. During World War II, Bourke-White became one of a stalwart group of women correspondents who covered the war from the front lines.
read more >

 

Beryl Markham (1902-1986) The Kenyan aviatrix Beryl Markham is best known for her celebrated memoir West with the Night, first published in 1942--and an international bestseller upon its republication in 1982. Beryl made aviation history in 1936, when she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from East to West.
read more >

 

Karen Blixen (1885-1962) is the best known, and possibly the greatest, Danish writer of the twentieth century. Her reputation as an author rests on several books written in English under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa (1938). The movie Out of Africa (1985) celebrates her life as a pioneer coffee farmer in Kenya from 1914 to 1931.
read more >

 

Amelia Earhart

 

 

Isabella Lucy (Bird) Bishop, 1831-1904, English traveler and writer, first woman member of the Royal Geographical Society. She traveled extensively and wrote a number of books
see her book list>