By Melanthia Mitchell
The Associated Press
Seattle – The climbers who routinely rack up firsts on the world’s tallest peaks are an elite group, grounded by memories of those whose lives and hopes were lost on snowy summits.
But the petite woman who this summer became the youngest person to scale the highest peaks on all seven continents did so almost on a whim.
Danielle Fisher, 20, summited Mount Everest in the early morning hours of June 2, conquering the Seven Summits in three years. The soft-spoken redhead is modest about her feat, but veterans of the sport say she’s spearheading a new generation of female climbers.
“I definitely think she’s more of an inspiration than she thinks,” said David C. Morton, a mountain guide with Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International, which led the expeditions on Fisher’s past four climbs.
Fisher already has earned a place in mountaineering history, but seasoned climbers say her energy, enthusiasm and dedication promise greater things. And her accomplishments could spark renewed interest in the sport among women.
“She takes the initiative and she’ll help out. She’ll be a team player. She has what it takes to be a real mountaineer,” said Christine Boskoff, who climbed the north ridge of Mount Baker with Fisher in 2004. “I think a lot of young girls will see her, and she’ll be a great role model for them.”
In 1997, Boskoff became the first American woman to reach the summit of 27,940-foot Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest peak, in the Himalayas. But her successes haven’t made her a familiar name outside the world of climbing.
The same is true for Junko Tabei of Japan, the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest, and Fanny Bullock Workman, who set a world climbing record for women in 1906 when she reached the top of Pinnacle Peak in Nun Kun Massif in Kashmir.
With the feats of many female mountaineers ignored or overshadowed by those of their male counterparts, women have been slow to take up the sport.
As owner of climbing outfitter Mountain Madness in Seattle, Boskoff, 37, often leads mountain expeditions, and she still doesn’t see many women in her groups. Some are deterred by chauvinism. Boskoff herself often is mistaken for a client while she’s guiding, she said.
Others are turned off by the physical requirements of the sport, such as carrying 50 pounds or more of gear.
“It’s our culture, women are taught to still be more delicate and trussed up. Mountaineering really doesn’t allow you to do that,” Boskoff said.
Another deterrent for many people – not just women – is that mountain climbing attracts the most attention when people are injured or killed, which isn’t typical of the sport, said Dunham Gooding, president of the American Alpine Institute, a 30-year-old climbing school and guide service.
“One hates to make generalizations, but as an enormous group, men are probably more attracted to facing challenges of hardship in the outdoors than women are,” Gooding said.
Fisher’s strength and perseverance make her unstoppable in the mountains, said Todd Burleson, president of Alpine Ascents. He calls Fisher one of the strongest woman climbers he’s worked with.
Laughing, he said one of the “problems” with Fisher is the speed at which she climbs – proof of her inexperience: “I had a terrible time trying to slow her down.”
Fisher is the first to acknowledge her climbing career had a bumpy start.
At 15, she was miserable when her father took her on two trips to Mount Baker.
She said it was a drag “being wet, cold. It wasn’t my idea of fun back then. I wanted to sit down and watch TV, not be outside in the elements.”
But she didn’t give it up, and when she climbed Mount Rainier later that summer, she was hooked.
“I can focus better up there,” Fisher said. “I think I can be myself more, especially when I’m away from my family and away from people I knew before. I’m more free to be myself.”
