Walker, Lucy (1836–1916)

English mountaineer . Born in 1836; died in 1916; daughter of Francis Walker (a mountaineer); sister of Horace Walker (a mountaineer); lived in Liverpool.

Made first woman's ascent of the Matterhorn (1871); served as president of the Ladies' Alpine Club (1913–15), which was founded in 1907.

In her childhood, Lucy Walker went on many Alpine expeditions with her mountaineer father. In 1859, at age 23, having shown an interest in climbing the Altels in the Bernese Ober-land, Walker was introduced by her father to the guide Melchior Anderegg; this was the beginning of a climbing partnership that lasted many years and 90 climbs. For all these climbs, Lucy wore a white print dress.

Invariably with Anderegg, sometimes with her family, Walker climbed Finsteraarhorn and the Monte Rosa (Dufourspitze) in 1862, the second highest peak in Europe. In 1864, she climbed the Eiger, Rimpfischorn, and Balmhorn. The following years saw the ascent of the Jungfrau, the Weisshorn, Dom des Mischabels, and the Mönch. In 1870, she ascended the Aiguille Verte. While she was on the mountain, her material needs, and those of the group, were looked after by her mother in the base camp below. The following year, Lucy Walker made her greatest climb—the Matterhorn.

Many had died on the Matterhorn (14,690 ft.), a pyramid that sits on the Swiss-Italian border. In 1865, four climbers had fallen to their deaths. Another was killed in 1868. Thus, when Walker attempted the Matterhorn, the world took note. On July 20, 1871, Lucy, her father, Fred Gardiner, Anderegg, and four other guides climbed the Matterhorn by the Hörnli route. It was the 19th ascent of the mountain and the first by a woman. For all her earlier climbs, her ascents to this point had been little known. Britain's Punch did its best to make the world catch up:

A lady has clomb to the Matterhorn's summit,
Which almost like a monument points to the sky.
Steep not very much less than the string of a plummet
Suspended, which nothing can scale but a fly.

This lady has likewise ascended the Weisshorn,
And, what's a great deal more, descended it too,
Feet foremost; which, seeing it might be named Icehorn,
So slippery 'tis, no small thing to do.

From 1858 to 1879, Lucy Walker missed only two climbing seasons—the first, when her father died in 1872.