i am woman hear me roar
by danny (danielle) bernstein

. . . in numbers too big to ignore (Helen Reddy, 1972)

Remember that song? If not, you should know that it was the feminist anthem in the 1970s at the beginning of the woman’s movement. Women moved into law, medicine, and into sports with Title IX legislation. Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 was the first important legislation that banned sex discrimination in school athletics and academics. It meant that women had to be offered the same opportunities to play sports as men.

Fast forward to the present and meet Ellen Miller. She is the first person, not just the first woman, to climb Mt. Everest via two different routes in the same year. At 43, notice 43 not 23, Miller did not seek any publicity for her accomplishment. Instead, she said “My style.... is to keep my head down, stay focused and try to reach the goal at hand—the summit”. Focus and perseverance will win over machismo, strength and bravado any time. Climbing and ski racing were her long-time hobbies, but in 1997 she quit her full-time job so she could concentrate on high-altitude ski racing and mountain climbing. She gets by financially with a little part-time work at an athletic club, but mostly by living simply.

I was very impressed by her training routine before her Mt. Everest expeditions. She ran every day (not just 20 minutes, three times a week) and practiced crossing ladders set up between cars in the parking lot. I tried to imagine her balancing ladders between cars in the mall lot. How did she do this? Did she bring her own two cars? How did she secure the ladders on the roofs? Were the cars the same height or was using cars of different heights part of the challenge? Did the security guards at the mall try to stop her? How ever she handled these details, her training paid off. She got to her goal, the summit of Mt. Everest, twice, with no drama or much publicity. Miller said that "after years of running and adventure racing and climbing, I’m comfortable being uncomfortable.”

I must confess that I have always been fascinated with Mt. Everest. It is almost common knowledge that in 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first climbers to reach the top of Mt. Everest and to come down alive. However, few know that in 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to climb Mt. Everest at age 36. In fact, she was the first woman to do all Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent. It took another thirteen years for the first American woman, Stacy Allison, to capture the Everest prize. She not only reached the top of Mt. Everest, but she also survived an abusive first marriage. Allison claims that winning the spot on the Everest expedition got her through her divorce. She chose to heal and turn her life around by being active. In those days, climbers earned a spot on Everest expeditions by being skilled mountaineers and good team players.
The last time that Mt. Everest made the front-page news was in 1996, when two climbing parties were devastated by accidents and deaths. For a while, I wallowed in all the articles, books and TV shows on the subject. I knew the details and challenges of the various sections of Mt. Everest. Then I realized that I was never going to go to the summit or even the Everest base camp. For me, climbing up to over 29,000 feet was an unrealistic goal, not to mention an expensive one. So I went back to concentrating on what I could hike and finished the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) two years later, all 2,160 miles of it.

Over 6,700 people have hiked the whole A.T. by now. Emma “Grandma” Gatewood in 1955 became the first woman to complete the trail. She was 67 years old and went on to hike the A.T. two more times, becoming the first person to walk the trail three times, the third time at age 76. This was before the days of light, ergonomically designed backpacks and sleeping bags. She wore tennis shoes and carried her gear, an army blanket, a raincoat, and a shower curtain in a duffle bag slung over her shoulder. I would not recommend such sparse, homemade equipment, but she proved that a woman is never too old for anything. Well, except for childbearing, which for her—after 11 children and many grandchildren—was probably a relief. She went on to walk other long-distance trails until her death at age 85. Her most famous saying, which is now on a t-shirt, is “It takes more heart than heel”.

Not ready to tackle the A.T.? What about climbing mountains over 6000 ft.? Our area is blessed with the highest mountains in the East, 38 in Western North Carolina and two in Eastern Tennessee. All forty mountains are safe and attainable; they just take time, perseverance, focus and heart.

I am strong
I am invincible
I am woman

Danny (Danielle) Bernstein is the director of Hiker to Hiker, a non-profit hiking organization. She retired from college teaching and organizes and leads day hikes and vacation trips in the Southern Appalachians. For more details, see hikertohiker.org or email at danny@hikertohiker.org.