Gertrude Benham (1867-1938) was a world traveler and master mountaineer who scaled over 300 mountains in her lifetime
Gertrude Benham (1867-1938) was a world traveler and master mountaineer who scaled over 300 mountains in her lifetime
You’re probably familiar with rebels without a cause, but what about rebels with a cause? This month on Womanica, we’re talking about women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. From the “Godmother of Title IX” Bernice Sandler, to the most prominent figure of the People Power Revolution, Corazon Aquino, to the “Queen of Civil Rights” Ruby Hurley, these women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about Rebels WITH a cause: women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. These women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
Today, we’re talking about a world traveler and master mountaineer who scaled over 300 mountains in her lifetime. Let’s talk about Gertrude Benham.
Gertrude was born in July 1867 in London. When she was growing up, her family used to spend their summers in the Swiss Alps. There, she fell in love with hiking and climbing. By her twenties, she had climbed both the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc - the highest peak in Western Europe.
Gertude spent her twenties and most of her thirties in England, helping to take care of her aging parents. By 1903, they had both died, andleft Gertrude a small inheritance. Gertrude used the money to fund a trip to Canada - the home of the Valley of the Ten Peaks.
Like you might have guessed, The Valley of the Ten Peaks was a mountain range made up of ten mountains. Gertrude had her eye on one of them in particular: a challenging, icy peak. It had preemptively been named “Mount Fay,” after Charles Fay, a prolific American climber who also had ambitions to climb to its summit.
On July 19th, 1904, Gertrude and a climbing guide set out to climb Mount Fay, and succeeded– or so they thought. It was only when they got back down to the ground they realized they’d climbed the wrong peak!
The next day, newly reoriented, Gertrude began to climb the actual Mount Fay. Charles Fay also started his ascent– but he and his guide encountered rough weather, and turned back before they made it to the top. Meanwhile, by the afternoon, Gertrude and her guide were looking down over the Canadian Rockies from the summit of Mount Fay. The peak was 10,612 feet off the ground - that’s about the height of seven Empire State buildings stacked on top of each other!
Charles was so upset he’d been beaten to the top of his namesake mountain that he asked for another mountain in the Valley of the Ten Peaks to be named after him. But he soon discovered that Gertrude had already climbed that mountain, too– accidentally, a day earlier than him. Later, a mountain neighboring Mount Fay was named Truda Peaks, in honor of Gertrude.
Gertrude’s Canadian climbing adventures were only the beginning of her journey. In 1905, she sailed to New Zealand, then trekked, mostly on foot, across the country to reach the Southern Alps. After climbing a few glaciers, she traveled to Australia, Japan, India, Egypt, and Corsica.
Gertrude documented the people, places, and plants she came across through journal entries, sketches, and photographs. Everywhere she went, she carried a copy of the Bible, the book Lorna Doone, and a pocket Shakespeare. She also kept a pair of knitting needles on hand - and often sold her needlework for extra cash.
In 1908, after a brief stint at home in England, Gertrude got back on the road. She traveled east to west, starting in Japan, then heading to California, and then landing in Chile. From there, she walked all the way from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina -- crossing the Andes Mountains in the process. Once she reached Buenos Aires, she got on a ship and crossed the Atlantic, to reach Africa. Eventually, she made her way across the continent to rest at the bottom of the highest mountain in Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro.
Before Gertrude and her guides began their ascent, a group of German men tried to warn them off. They told her that no British person had ever managed to make it to the top.
Gertrude didn’t let that stop her. As she continued the climb, she and her group came across two skeletons - climbers who had tried, and failed, to make it to the top. Gertrude’s group was shaken. They decided to turn back - and urged Gertrude to do the same. But Gertrude refused, and continued the climb on her own. At 2pm, she found herself looking into the crater just below the mountain's peak. . She later said about the excursion: “My first feeling up there was that of being absolutely on top of the world.”
Gertrude still wasn’t finished.She set out on yet another adventure. This time, she started in Nigeria, a country in West Africa. From there, she walked all the way to Mozambique - a country in southeast Africa. The trek added up to 3,000 miles – and after all that, she still had the energy for a quick jaunt through the Himalayan Mountains. When she made it back to England, the first World War had begun.
During her time at home, she was briefly a member of the Royal Geographical Society. But the society’s members were interested in scientific writing - they didn’t appreciate Gertrude’s tendency to write about the locals she met while traveling and the scenic views she’d taken in. Gertrude resigned from the society after six months.
By 1924, she was back on the road - this time, in India. There, she wanted permission from British colonial authorities to enter Tibet through a remote western pass. Even after authorities refused, Gertrude remained in the area, trying to find a way across the border. She caused such a stir that the authorities began tracking her movements, keeping the information they had on her in a special file. A year later, she finally entered Tibet, legally.
Even as she aged, Gertrude’s thirst for adventure remained. In the years that followed, she went back to the Himalayas, she traversed countries in northeast Africa, she visited Hong Kong, Guatemala, Belize, Trinidad, and more. In 1934, she said that she had visited “every part of the British empire,” apart from a few small islands, and climbed to the top of over 300 mountains.
Gertrude died in 1938, in a ship off the coast of East Africa. She was two years into yet another trip around the world.
All month, we’re talking about rebels with a cause. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!