Top Stories of women's adventure - Jill Fredston, Barbara Rowell, Arlene Blum, Amy Racina, Susan Alcorn, Eileen McDargh.

Rowing to Latitude by Jill Fredston is a fascinating story of a woman rowing and her husband paddling more than 20,000 miles in the far North. If you are bear phobic or ocean phobic, don't read it.

Flying South by Barbara Rowell is the story of woman struggling to find her own identity, and succeeding, while living with a husband who was a legend in his own right. On a trip to Patagonia and back, flying a small plane, she had a journey of self discovery, and also wrote a very good story - published posthumously. Much more than a women's adventure story.

Arlene Blum's all time classic Annapurna a Woman's Place - 20th Anniversary Edition  - the story of the 1978 climb by the American Women's Himalayan Expedition updated now with a new forward in honor of the 20th anniversary -  triumph and death, commitment and struggle, passion and humor - the jacket's words.  Our words - wonderful but terrifying, stress filled, Russian roulette. Women's adventure right down to life and death issues.

Isabella Lucy Bird (Bishop) was an extraordinary Englishwoman, sickly as a child and adult, who was told to travel for her health at the age of 22, in the year 1824.  She traveled and wrote for the rest of her life. In 1873 her travels took her to the Rocky Mountains, where with no mountaineering experience, she climbed the over 14,000 foot Longs Peak only five years after it was first climbed. Any of her books are a fascinating glimpse into outdoor adventure in a different time, but I suggest starting with the one on Rocky Mountains, and then the one on Japan, and go from there.

Angels in the Wilderness by Amy Racina. This extraordinary tale is one of the very few wilderness survival epics. Most solo hikers who suffer severe injury off trail do not make it out. Their story is told, if at all, on tattered scraps of paper found on their body. Amy fell sixty feet onto granite. Both legs were broken. A hip and kneecap were fractured. She had open wounds. If you ever hike, read this story. If you have friends going through physical therapy, this book will give you some clue to what they are going through.

Books by/about Adventurous Women:

If you came straight to this page, you might have missed reading about Susan Alcorn's We're in the Mountains, Not Over the Hill: Tales and Tips from Seasoned Women Backpackers.  Click here to go to the page for that book.

Gifts from the Mountain, Simple Truths for Life's Complexities by Eileen McDargh. Watercolors and wisdom drawn from backpacking inspiration. Hard to classify, but I highly recommend it.

Joyce Gellhorn's Song of the Alpine: The Rocky Mountain Tundra through the Seasons is a gorgeous, fact filled book, but hard to classify.  Joyce is one of the women backpackers interviewed in Susan Alcorn's book. At the age of 15, Joyce and her sister decided to climb all of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks, starting with Longs Peak.  They did several others, and Joyce grew to love the high tundra country. She went on to make a career of it, getting a Ph.D. in botany, with a specialty in plant ecology. Her book is deceptively beautiful, glossy paged, lots of color photos, but by the end of it you realize that you have also picked up a huge amount of factual information - the physics of thunderstorms, the winter habits of pikas, wet snow and dry snow avalanches, early mountain climbers - worth the price just for the pika photos.

Karen Berger is one of the select few who have hiked the Triple Crown - Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail and Continental Divide Trail.  Also a talented and prolific author, read her Hiking the Triple Crown to get an excellent overview of these three trails, and what is involved in doing any or all of them.

In Beauty May She Walk, Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60 by Leslie Mass. Hard to put down. An excellent account of Leslie's 2001 hike of the AT, including being on the trail during 9/11. Will give anyone with age or gender reservations new hope.

Beverly Hugo hiked the complete AT in 1995 at the age of 48.  She has written Women & Thru-Hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  Based on the Amazon reviews, this is a very helpful book and one of the few directed towards women backpackers

 Bold Spirit by Linda Hunt is about the extraordinary journey of Helga Estby who in June of 1896, went out her door in Boise, Idaho and walked across the continent with her daughter, arriving in New York City seven months later.

Haven't Read but other reviewers recommend:

Walking Home: A Woman's Pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail by Kelly Winters looks like a good women's adventure story of walking the AT.

Ellen Dudley and Eric Seaborg - contributor wrote American Discoveries:Scouting the First coast-to-coast Recreational Trail. This got great reviews in Amazon as an adventure story.  It's on my list of things I have to read

Women in Wilderness by Anne LaBastille, wildlife ecologist, documents the stories of fifteen women with careers centering around the wilderness or outdoors. These women provide role models for those striving to enter this still male dominated field.