Routes in the northeast FA'd/developed by women

Kevin Heckeler wrote: Yodellaybackloon was tougher to put up, due to the prior mankiness of the corner.  I wonder how it's fairing all these years later...
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107595867/yodellaybackloon

Two summers ago it was begging to be brushed clean again.

VT  Isa Oehry, 
 **Perrigan Dihedral , Mt Horrid. Isa Oehry, onsight trad 9 PG?
Deer Leap Killington vt
*****Celibacy, 9+  I bolted it GU mixed.  Isa TRed to my high point (last bolt)  and then topped out for the FA. brought me up and then we rapped and she  led it free for the FFA
****Wild woman 10A.  GU Mixed. I got a pin in and was thinking about a bolt. Isa got impatient and led it clean without the bolt. I then added the bolt.
*Flat Vision. 10++ unless you are Really tall. Sport. I lead bolted it. Isa led it clean/ for the FFA.
 50 lentze  10++ same deal, mixed but this one is dirty... and no stars though P2 would have stars  if it was on it's own.
*Flying Groundhog 10c R trad headpoint. lots of TR rehersal.  (5 stars if it was bolted)
*Autum fever. 10+ 5.6X TR rehersal . I placed a pin on lead (stolen) Isa led it for the FFA unrepeated.
*Hard way 10b mixed. I ground up rope solo bolted , Isa FFA
*Easy way 11a I sport bolted Isa FFA
I am probably forgetting a few??

 Isa also has a bunch in NH

Jon Clark wrote:

Kim Cardigan is a dude from Australia.

Carrigan

Bryce Adamson wrote: Raubenheimer Special led by Krist Raubenheimer. I always assumed Jackie was named after a woman, but I guess it is actually named after the FAist Jack Taylor.

Was she a tall woman? That FA is even more impressive if not, because the crux is very height-dependent. I'm not sure what height makes it really hard, but I think for the average-height woman that climb is probably in the 5.10R range.

There are many throughout the Northeast, but one definitely worth mentioning that I have not seen included here is Vulgatits in the Near Trapps, which I believe, was the first all-female FA in the Gunks--Gerd Thuestad, Evie Goldstone, Elaine Matthews.

I'm at work, so I can't confirm this right now, but I believe that Allison Osius was on the First Free Ascent of Labyrinth Wall Direct on Cannon--a 'big one'. Lindy Mcillwayne was on a few FA's on Cannon including Moonshadow.

The truth of it, unfortunately, at least for more top down , pre-prepped style, is there are very few who actually do FAs start to finish from finding a line, fully cleaning, equipping and doing the lead. Most of the time it is a guy doing 75% of the work and handing it over for their mate or climbing partner to get the lead. It is a lot of physical work to sustain the effort to do a good job and most, male or female, pretty quickly find it ridiculous. I haven't heard of a single woman in the NE who has gone out and bought their own drill and bolting kit (though they do buy them for their husbands/BFs!). Two women that I know who have been willing to put sustained elbow grease in on FAs are Paula King and Amy Colburn.  Torie Kidd also seems to be in to new routing and willing to put the work in. There are, especially in the past, more ground up style trad done by women I think.

That being said, there are quite a lot of women who are very supportive of team effort FAs or very generous donating towards hardware or organizing to get gear for route developers in less financially privileged areas.

Mark's post made me remember this article about Glenna Alderson, including her development efforts at Farley:
http://cruxcrush.com/2015/02/09/glenna-alderson-a-local-crag-legend/
Pooh Corner, that the article references, is a classic moderate. You would need Al Rubin, or another local, to divulge more.
I tried to find more about Krist Raubenheimer, and didn't unearth anything much, but did stumble across this amazing pair of blog posts, for anyone interested in general history:
https://atkinsopht.wordpress.com/2017/11/01/the-gunks-of-yore-1956-1963-the-appies/
https://atkinsopht.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/the-gunks-of-yore-1966-74-the-clean-climbing-revolution/

In the early 80's, Sue Patenaude (of Pat's Peak fame) FA'ed a number of Mount Washington Valley routes with Ed Webster.  She led Crazy Woman Driver (5.9, X) at Rainbow Slabs in the pre-sticky rubber days, a pretty serious proposition.

You are totally correct Bryce, how could I not mention Glenna and her numerous contributions to Farley!!!! And, contrary to Mark's observations above, Glenna has put in very many hours of of the hard grind of cleaning and equipping entire sections of the crag. More recently Alice Gardner has also been very active in in cleaning, equipping, and leading new routes at the same crag. No doubt there are other women doing the same elsewhere in the region.

I forgot about Glenna! (haven't seen her and Earl in a while) Farley does seem to have a rare concentration of a few female developers. I still think it is pretty rare though.

 Earl and Glenna retired in December and have moved to Bend, OR., just in time as Hampshire College's future is now very much in question.

M Sprague wrote: The truth of it, unfortunately, at least for more top down , pre-prepped style, is there are very few who actually do FAs start to finish from finding a line, fully cleaning, equipping and doing the lead. Most of the time it is a guy doing 75% of the work and handing it over for their mate or climbing partner to get the lead. It is a lot of physical work to sustain the effort to do a good job and most, male or female, pretty quickly find it ridiculous. I haven't heard of a single woman in the NE who has gone out and bought their own drill and bolting kit (though they do buy them for their husbands/BFs!). Two women that I know who have been willing to put sustained elbow grease in on FAs are Paula King and Amy Colburn.  Torie Kidd also seems to be in to new routing and willing to put the work in. There are, especially in the past, more ground up style trad done by women I think.

That being said, there are quite a lot of women who are very supportive of team effort FAs or very generous donating towards hardware or organizing to get gear for route developers in less financially privileged areas.

To this point and another one to add to the list. I believe Ward mentioned Paula put up Bandwagon 12- at Farley

M Sprague wrote: The truth of it, unfortunately, at least for more top down , pre-prepped style, is there are very few who actually do FAs start to finish from finding a line, fully cleaning, equipping and doing the lead. Most of the time it is a guy doing 75% of the work and handing it over for their mate or climbing partner to get the lead. It is a lot of physical work to sustain the effort to do a good job and most, male or female, pretty quickly find it ridiculous. I haven't heard of a single woman in the NE who has gone out and bought their own drill and bolting kit (though they do buy them for their husbands/BFs!). Two women that I know who have been willing to put sustained elbow grease in on FAs are Paula King and Amy Colburn.  Torie Kidd also seems to be in to new routing and willing to put the work in. There are, especially in the past, more ground up style trad done by women I think.

That being said, there are quite a lot of women who are very supportive of team effort FAs or very generous donating towards hardware or organizing to get gear for route developers in less financially privileged areas.

I agree with much of what Mark is saying.

Putting up new lines, especially in the grungy northeast, is a ton of work.  Since I'm not one for half-assed cleaning efforts just to get an FA I'll put multiple days of effort into cleaning single pitches to leave a route climbable for future parties.  I think of it partially as a community service--it's just as much for other people to enjoy as it is for me.  Also, I get a sick sense of enjoyment out of cleaning a route, which I don't think is normal. Developing this way requires time, energy, not to mention willingness to carry a REALLY heavy pack.  

To truly put up a new route from start to finish (find a line, clean it and climb it) requires a wide variety of skills.  You have to be confident with your ability to rig, comfortable moving up & down a rope all day, knowledgeable about bolting properly, self-assured enough that when others criticize your methods (not ground up, too many/not enough bolts, not clean enough, etc.) you aren't affected, physically fit enough to remove loose rocks, scrub, drill, and hammer AND THEN you need to be strong enough to actually lead the route. I guess I feel like this complete skill set is not something most women have developed and I think this could also be attributed to a larger systemic social issue.  (I feel fortunate that my father forgot he didn't have sons and taught my sister and I skills most dad's wouldn't have taught their daughters.)

As opposed to most climbing, new-routing is not necessarily a team sport.  I've prepped most of my routes alone.  I've heard from men that the ego must be involved to have a desire to put up routes.  While that may be true for some people, I'm not sure I agree with this on personal level.  I've always been the climber who gawks up at rock faces remarking, "OH! what's that crack?" or "Wow! Look at that face! There has to be a route up that!" To me it's about exploration and finding a beautiful route. I loose interest on projects that climb awkwardly or aren't aesthetic.  More recently, I also just avoid lines that require excessive cleaning since they're more than likely just going to grow back into obscurity... perhaps there's some ego involved after all?

The bottom line is that I'm not totally sure why more women aren't interested in putting up new routes but I suspect the bulk of the reason is the amount of hard work.

Thanks all! It turns out Glenna Alderson developed one of my favorite routes at Farley, Green Mile. Cool to see the photo in the linked article of her bolting it:

Alan Rubin wrote: There are many throughout the Northeast, but one definitely worth mentioning that I have not seen included here is Vulgatits in the Near Trapps, which I believe, was the first all-female FA in the Gunks--Gerd Thuestad, Evie Goldstone, Elaine Matthews.

Do you happen to know the year of the FA? I couldn't find the route in the Gunks App or MP (perhaps it is a victim of the closure in that area?).

I did find what I think may be a couple even earlier all-female Gunks FA's: Bunny and Fancy Idiot, both FA'd by Anne Church and Krist Raubenheimer in 1955.

A few other interesting bits of history I've found:

• Miriam O'Brien (later Underhill) was on the 1927 FA of Henderson Ridge of Huntington Ravine with Ken Henderson et al.
• Betty Woolsey was on the 1940 FA of the Henderson route on Cannon, along with Henry Baldwin, Robert Bates, Robert Bishop, Ken Henderson, and William House
• Jan Conn led the crux pitches of Conncourse on Cannon in the 1945 FA with Herb Conn. The route has since been destroyed by rock fall but was roughly where Moby Grape now is.

Etha, I am uncertain about which route you are asking for the FA year on in your most recent post--is it Green Mile, Vulgatits, or one of the Cannon routes I had mentioned?

Betty Woolsey was also with Weissner on one or more new routes on Ragged in Connecticut in the 1930s, as well as some routes out west.

Miriam O'Brien/Underhill was likely involved in other New England new routes as well. While not in the "Northeast" it is worth mentioning that she made several first 'all female", unguided ascents in the Alps in the 1920s, as well as the 'official' first ascent of the Via Miriam on the Torre Grande in the Cinque Torre in the Dolomites (her guides actually climbed the route--or most of it, shortly before doing it with her). She was a formidable climber.

There were quite a few women who were very active participants in the 'early' years (post World War 1) of climbing in the Northeast including being involved in various first ascents. Peggy Navas and her husband John, were Weissner's partners on the very first route in the Gunks--Old Route at Millbrook.

Women pioneered on ice as well. Climbing historian Laura Waterman was herself a very strong climber and with her late husband, Guy, made the first ascent of a hard ice climb on Mt. Kineo in Maine.

Alan Rubin wrote: Etha, I am uncertain about which route you are asking for the FA year on in your most recent post--is it Green Mile, Vulgatits, or one of the Cannon routes I had mentioned?

I was asking about Vulgatits.

Thanks for sharing so much interesting history!

Etha...re' Jan Conn and Conn Course - Actually very little of the 1945 Conn Course route was affected by rockfall.  Really, only the bottom-to-middle section of the pitch above the top of the Conn Butress. ( Usually the 3rd pitch as done today.) That is where there used to be an inside-corner that led to a "rising traverse"  (or was it vice-versa??).  The corner came off and left the crack-overhang that is there today.

The original P1 & P2 by the Conn's went up the right-hand corner systems of the Conn Buttress, and I don't know how much of THAT(usually wett-ish) area may have had some rock movement, since nearly everyone now does the climb using the Reppy Crack  as P1, or (less nowdays due to some rock movement) the Moby Grape corners on the left side of the Conn Buttress.

Hi Etha, I don't have my guidebooks handy but I'm pretty sure that Vulgatits was put up in the very late '60s/early '70s, so well after Bunny and Fancy Idiot---in fact, 1955 was even before the Vulgarians appeared on the Gunks scene.

Vulga-Tits  FA  1968  Gerd Thuestad, Kaye Arnott, Evy Goldstone

Glenna has more energy then ten normal people.  If you saw The Green Mile before it was cleaned you could not believe there was a climb under all that moss and lichen. And what a fabulous climb it is.  And what a fabulous person.  She, Earl and I think Pete Clark (but I may be confusing the Pete with the other Farley Pete, Al will correct me if I am.  My memory sucks especially with names) did an incredibly monumental job in cleaning what is now the Main Slabs.  The debris were four feet deep at the bottom of the face when they were done.  Have no idea of the FAs on that face but I know Glenna was likely involved in more than one of them.  Many of them are very hard and a number are other worldly hard especially for this duffer.

Can't remember the name of the climb but Alice Gardner put up a very, very nice and thoughtful climb in up at Crag X at Farley.  I do know there was a lot of moss shoveling and  I think some pry bar work involved in putting it up.  In my mind it went at the 5.9/5.10a level.  It might be a bit mellower than that. I am not very good at route finding. There were a couple of "Do I go right or do I go right moments".  I probably made it more difficult than it had to be.    Plus I was one of the early repeaters of the route so there wasn't a chalk highway to follow.  Al can probably offer more info.

Two big thumbs up for Amy Coburn and her work up at Green's.  Hugh amount of effort on some very nice lines.  From the Daks and Crane Mountain as mentioned above Val Bachinsky has been very active.  

I am privileged to know all four of the women mentioned above and each in their own way are outstanding individuals and climbers.  There is another one woman I wish I had had the opportunity to have met and climbed with. That would be Bonnie Prudden.  She led a extremely interesting life. An afternoon spent chatting with her would have been likely very well spent indeed.  As it is one of my favorite climbing stories is of her taking over the lead from Hans Kraus and forging ahead to complete the fabulous climb we know as Bonnie's Roof.