A Lady's Tour Round Monte Rosa; With Visits to the Italian Valleys of Anzasca, Mastaleone, Camasco, Sesia, Lys, Challant, Aosta, and Cogne. In a Series of Excursions in the Years 1850-56-58.

Bookseller Notes

The first English language guide to the mountain range produced by a woman alpinist. The guide documents the adventurer's experiences on the Tour of Monte Rosa, a now legendary 102-mile hike through the Swiss and Italian Alps, with the Monte Rosa massif - the second highest mountain in western Europe, at its centre. Eliza Cole was a pioneer who exhorted other women to follow in her footsteps; she aims 'to give, in the following pages, the benefits of my experience to others, in the hope of inducing them, and especially members of my own sex to follow my example, and visit the valleys which surround this magnificent mountain, some of which have been hitherto but little frequented.' Some of her wisdom:'Two or three hours in the badly-ventilated rooms of a crowded picture gallery will generally produce a feeling of more thorough fatigue than a journey over an eight-hours' pass in the pure, invigorating mountain air.'A lady should 'have a dress of some light woollen material, such as carmelite or alpaca, which, in case of bad weather, does not look utterly forlorn when it has once been wetted and dried.'The hiker needs: 'a pair of easily-fitting, strong, treble-soled, broad-footed boots.' If the soles are thick enough to screw Lund's glacier nails - 'to be had at Lund's cutlery shop in Fleet Street' - into them when necessary, 'great additional security will be felt in walking over a glacier.'The traveller 'should also have a small waterproof bag, large enough to contain Murray's indispensable 'Handbook', some good maps, a small opera-glass, a few spare straps, and veils for crossing the snow.'Keep 'a flask, with a roll, biscuit, or some trifling thing to eat, and to which one can get access to at the moment it is required.'Cole's book was illustrated by George Barnard (c.1807-90). 'Barnard was one of the first Alpine artists to draw mountains with any degree of accuracy' (Neate).