Pilley, Dorothy (1893–1986)
Pilley, Dorothy (1893–1986)
British mountaineer who made the first ascent of the North Ridge of the Dent Blanche. Name variations: Dorothy Pilley Richards. Born in 1893; died in 1986; married I(vor) A(rmstrong) Richards (1893–1979, British literary critic and theorist).
Dorothy Pilley was probably the best-known English woman climber in the 1920s and 1930s. Her husband, literary critic and theorist I.A. Richards, had suffered a bout of tuberculosis and developed an interest in mountain climbing while he recovered in northern Wales. The couple, who lived in Cambridge, would climb together quite often. In 1928, along with her husband and Joseph and Antoine Georges, Pilley ascended the North Ridge of the Dent Blanche. Her autobiography, Climbing Days, was published by Secker & Warburg in 1953.