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Queen of Mountaineers – Fanny Workman
Book Review- Workman
QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAINEERS. The Trail Blazing Life of Fanny Bullock Workman. By Cathryn J. Prince. Pp. 304, 18 B/W photos, 2019. (Chicago Review Press, Chicago, $ 28.99)
As I reached Indira Col at head of the Siachen glacier, in 1998, I looked back to all the difficult terrain I had covered- crevasses, long moraine ridges and walk of about 98 km. But my thoughts were for Fanny Bullock Workman. How she must have reached here in 1910 when things were not so easy. Wearing her trademark skirt, a topee and long ice-axe she stood on the col and displayed a poster which said “Votes For Woman”. She named the col, today the northernmost point of India, as “Indira Col”, after goddess Laxmi from the Hindu mythology.
All these events sum up FBW. An intrepid explorer, passionate about social commitment for women’s rights, knowledge of the terrain, study of local traditions and religion, but still with her roots firm with the skirt and hat. She was with two Italian guides and a large entourage of porters.
There are many facets of this lady explorer. Fanny Bullock was born in rich family and married a rich doctor William Hunter Workman. “With marriage Fanny Bullock Workman cast-off chains of Victorian womanhood”. She was a fierce fighter for rights of woman as till then most of the western countries did not allow woman to vote or enjoy equal rights. To make a statement for women liberation, she always wore a long skirt, even at high altitude, and a ladies hat strapped to her chin to face the Karakoram wind.
After gaining some mountain climbing experience she decided to join male bastion of mountaineering – the American Alpine Club in 1902. Before that she had applied for the membership of the Alpine Club, London, in 1857, but was rejected as the club did not admit lady members. She formed the “Ladies Alpine Club” in 1907. Both clubs ran parallel and it was only in 1976 they were merged with positions offered to the lady members.
In the USA bicycle was a new invention and that attracted Fanny and her husband. They cycled to most places in Europe and to starting points of many Alpine peaks like Mont Blanc, which she was the first woman to summit. Next was cycling trip to Switzerland to climb Matterhorn, though she suffered sun-allergy.
Soon Asia and India called her- first to cycle. Every trip, and there were many, Workmans sailed three week – sea voyages each way. In 1897-98 they cycled all over India on a 14,000 mile journey, reaching Srinagar and Ladakh. It was rare sight and curious villagers and officials looked at the couple with wonder. The officials did not know the areas of Darjeeling and Sikkim where they were to cycle and Fanny spread a map to show them their land. This was followed by a long cycle tour of “Indo-China” next year.
From 1902-03 Workman concentrated on the Himalayan and Karakoram regions. First it was Chogo Lungma glacier at foot of Nun and Kun peaks, with her first peak, Pinnacle Peak, climbed in August 1906. This was followed by crossing of Chogo la. Few more trips followed to the Karakoram glaciers; to Hispar and Baltistan, one each year, of course after having cycled in the Indian plains.
By this time Workman couple were in demand as writers and for lectures. They made a European Lecture tour ending at London. She was invited to lecture at the famed hall of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. “They were chilly to woman explorer”. But she had breached the ultimate male bastion of mountaineering. ‘For Workman, this was the ultimate in recognisition, the ultimate victory.”
She always climbed with the Alpine guides and some of them achieved fame and money by accompanying her. She held high altitude climbing record for woman and was known both in Europe and US to make her journeys as newspaper headlines.
The last Karakoram journey she made was to the Siachen glacier, or “Rose Glacier” as she called it. As usual she was with guides and about 400 hundred Balti porters. Trekking in style and comfort she spent leisurely time in studying local legends, history and studied the glaciers in detail. It was a good use of her time and money. For her it was “peacock- Blue sky” and “Egg yolk yellow sun” in writing and she enjoyed every bit of it. Her love for nature comes out best in her love for what she called ‘Snow-Roses”.
I had been kept awake late by great gusts of wind racking my tent, and, more especially, by the loud dirge-like chanting of the coolies at their camp, which rose irritatingly above the howling of the wind. Exasperated, at last I threw on a fur coat and went out into the frigid air to call the guides and have them stop the coolie-noise. It was still snowing and blowing on the glacier, but above Tarim Shehr the clouds had parted, and a full moon shone with silvery splendour upon an exquisite scene. As I stood there I beheld all about me the undulating hillocks covered with large, feathery, full-blown snow-roses. It was not an hallucination. They appeared completely formed, although the snow-covered grass-blades aided, no doubt, in the fantastic composition. I buried my hands in their cold, silvery petals, and then, forgetting the zero temperature, stood chained by the poetry of the surroundings. A tall snow-peak, moon-bathed from base to apex, looked down upon the rose-hills, the chant of the coolies clanged stridently yet in harmony with the now distant roar of the wind, and the moon, hung in a black sky, cast its resplendent light over all.
The weird glory of the scene and the discovery of the snow-roses so impressed me that I returned to my tent without stopping the chant of the coolies, feeling for the first time in years that their voices mingled fittingly with those of nature.
(p. 243)
As author concludes :
Through her writing she tried to show it was possible to travel the world and climb the highest mountains. She went further than any woman had gone before. She was a pioneer.
HARISH KAPADIA