Women's

(OK, OK, some of those from womenclimbing.com, hope no-one will notice...)

"Rocks make no compromise for sex... rock climbing is not like some sports, where it is made easier for women; or sports like, say, softball, which is only baseball for soft people. On a rock, everything is equal." — Beverly Johnson.

"No, she's the leader of our climb." — Colin Grissom in response to a german who asked if Kitty Calhoun was the base camp manager on the way up to Dhaulagiri.

"I taught my mother to climb. And she gets nervous sometimes. She'll yell: 'let me down'. That's a tough one. You never want to let your mother down." — Nancy Feagin.

"Non Mademoiselle, pas possible !" — 19th Century Hotel Staff to Lily Barstow after being told that she just climbed the Rothhorn without guides.

"They heard I had climbed a few mountains in Alaska. They said it would be a better movie if they had a girl it in." — Barbara Washburn on including her in a promotional documentary film about climbing Denali in 1947, as a gimmick to promote the Hollywood feature film, The White Tower.

"I can't remember a single time that I was prevented from doing what I wanted because I was a female, either on the rock or in the mountains." — Annie Whitehouse.

"We knew that a failure on the first women's attempt on El Cap would be a fiasco we could never live down." — Sibylle Hechtel after climbing the Triple Direct with Bev Johnson.

"I was quaking in my boots." — Lynn Hill after dropping a crucial stopper on the crux pitch during her free ascent of El Cap's Nose in a day.

"Height has nothing to do with it, it is your strength that counts." — Lynn Hill about her free ascent of the Nose.

"Of course, the first all-female ascent of Midnight Lightning was a huge coup, as Lynn was obviously aware. In fact, to make the ascent seem all the more valid, she even had her belayer (John Bachar) dress up in women's lingerie." — Kelly Rich.

"If someone were to ask me to quit climbing because they love me so much and doesn't want to lose me, I'd be out the door so fast, that someone wouldn't have time to say adios." — Inez Drixelius.

"I did the twenty-three-hour Nose route to the top of El Capitan in eighteen hours and twenty-three minutes, I can get over this." — Avery Bishop (Kelly Preston) responding to Jerry Maquire (Tom Cruise) after calling off their engagement.

"The masculine mind, however is, with rare exceptions, imbued with the idea that a woman is not a fit comrade for steep ice or precipitous rock, and, in consequence, holds it as an article of faith that her climbing should be done by Mark Twain's method, and that she should be satisfied with watching through a telescope some weedy and invertebrate masher being hauled up a steep peak by a couple of burly guides, or by listening to this same masher when, on his return, he lisps out with a Sickening drawl the many perils he has encountered." — Mrs. A F. Mummery.

"In common with many women, I felt that the Dolomites were made to suit me with their small but excellent toe- and finger-holds, and pitches where a delicate sense of balance was the key, rather than brute force. While it helps, of course, to have tough muscles, the prizefighter would not necessarily make a fine Dolomite climber. But the ballet dancer might." — Mirium Underhill.

"On the first morning, I took them up Middlefell Buttress: five of us, all on one rope. It was slow, cold and boring. They climbed faster than I did, surrounded with an almost visible aura of masculine resentment. So I took them to Gwynne's Chimney on Pavey Ark, and as they struggled and sweated in that smooth cleft, sparks flying from their nails, and me waiting at the top with a taut rope and a turn round my wrist, I knew that I had won. The atmosphere — when we were all together again — was clean and relaxed." — Gwen Moffat.

"Climbing is like a brain enema. It just cleans all the crap out of your head." — Emily.

"It is very important for women to climb with other women." — Zoe Bundros.

"If one more person says to me: 'Wow, you climb, and you don't have a boyfriend?' I'm gonna hurl. What am I supposed to say in response to that: 'Well, I have a really lousy personality' ?" — Kellie.

"I came up to help you with your pack, but it looks like you don't need any help." — John Roskelley to Deborah Waterman at 17,800 feet on Denali.

"A Woman's Place Is on Top." — T-shirt from first American woman's ascent of Annapurna.

"The essence of climbing is not limited to those out there making a name for themselves." — Lois LaRock.

"I've never noticed that being a woman is a handicap or a plus. I am a woman and there are men and we climb together. Sometimes I'm stronger, sometimes they're stronger — we motivated each other." — Robyn Erbesfield.

"It begs the question who is the one being entertained ? The guys like to look at the girls, so they think that they win, but we get to look at a whole selection of guys who are often willing to take us climbing at times and places that our experience may not merit were we just another guy." — Melissa.

"I have left and retired for good unless it becomes an Olympic sport and then I'd like to make a comeback." — Robyn Erbesfield.

"I am too slow to be a good climber, so I film instead." — Wanda Rutkiewicz who has climbed many 8000m peaks, often without oxygen.

"The fact that I'm three months pregnant doesn't change anything." — Catherine Destivelle preparing to solo the Old Man of Hoy seastack.

"I can't understand why men make all this fuss about Everest — it's only a mountain." — Junko Tabei, first woman to climb Everest.

"Reaching that windswept perch, I decided, would cleanse my spirit and heal my wounds. More than that, it would send me home with a title: The First American Woman to Climb Everest." — Stacy Allison.

"Hi, this is Annie. I can't meet with you this week because I'm off to Patagonia. I decided to go just today — I'll be in touch when I get back." — Annie Whitehouse's answering machine.