Thirty below The harrowing and heroic story of the first all-women's ascent of Denali

Just like men, women have been drawn to uncharted exploration and climbing the highest mountain peaks, but many women were denied an opportunity because they supposedly "lacked strength and emotional stability," or heaven forbid could get their period during an expedition. In the summer of 1970, an international team of experienced climbers--Arlene Blum, Margaret Clark, Grace Hoeman, Dana Isherwood, Faye Kerr, and Margaret Young--were brought together by fate, history, and a common aspiration: to prove that an all-female team could successfully summit North America's highest mountain peak, Denali (formerly Mount McKinley). Award-winning author Randall does a fine job mining research and conducting interviews to bring this little-known expedition to light, and Arlene Blum's Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life is referenced throughout. Part four of the book, "Killing Heights," covers their arduous expedition, complimented by black and white photos. Mountain climbing may be a fringe sport, but these "Denali Damsels" broke barriers and proved that "real" women could be career-driven as well as vulnerable, ambitious climbers. Randall pays homage to six female trailblazers who deserve recognition for their historic achievements. Highly recommend.

The story of how the "Denali Damsels" found mountaineering, each other, and the summit of the "Great One." In 1970, Grace Hoeman and Arlene Blum led six women on the first all-women's summit of Denali. Randall's record of this climb is a study in showing rather than telling, spanning the grueling, weekslong trek and the question of how the "audacious, boundary-breaking climb" became largely forgotten. Despite its quiet place in history, the group's journey to the highest peak in North America defied the expectations of what women could withstand, physically and psychologically, in a climbing environment so hostile that it, more often than not, turns climbers back, and sometimes claims their lives. With clear appreciation for and understanding of the technical skill their achievement required, the author laces together the group members' individual backgrounds, relationships, motivations, and brushes with catastrophe that threatened the mission before it even began. Instead of dedicating long passages to redeeming the oft-discounted strength and endurance of women or musing about the appeal of such a goal, the author mines archives, private journals, and her own interviews to construct a story full of almost achingly vivid details and mounting friction between complicated, heroic women undertaking great risk in a notoriously exacting environment. Randall's account is a bit lopsided, leaning heavily on the perspectives of only half the group, but even so, it illustrates how personal idiosyncrasies, shaky group dynamics, savage winter weather, and the high stakes of success weighed on the group's decisions and tolerance for risk along the way. The prejudices, intimidation, and exclusion of the male-dominated sphere of mountaineering affected, angered, and motivated each of the Denali Damsels differently, but readers will be left in awe of the women's enthrallment to the sport, their determination, and the bittersweet spirit of their life-changing experience. An entrancing tale of a harrowing adventure. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.