Harrowing Adventures by One of California’s First Woman Mountain Climbers, Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, Subject of Pasadena Book Reading at Vromans by Former Yosemite Ranger
Her name immortalized on summits and routes, most Americans have never heard of this pioneering climber.
Pasadena, CA, April 06, 2008 --(PR.com)-- In 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, Ruth Dyar [Mendenhall] arrived in Los Angeles with $40 dollars in her pocket. Within a year of her arrival, Mendenhall had become one of California’s – and America’s – first woman mountain climbers, at a time when the opportunities for women to climb were practically non-existent.
Settling in Pasadena and raising her family there, Ruth embarked on a fifty-year career of mountaineering with her husband, John Mendenhall. Together, they made first ascents in California’s Sierra Nevada, Wyoming’s Tetons, and Canada’s Rockies.
Their California ascents included what are now considered classics: the Swiss Arete, Mount Sill (1938), Third Needle, Mount Whitney (1939), North Peak, Temple Crag (1940), Southeast Buttress, Mount Whitney (1941), Lower Cathedral Spire, Yosemite (1948), the North Face of Mount Williamson (1957) and Mt. Mendenhall in the Sierra Nevada.
For forty years Ruth edited the Mugelnoos, newsletter of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club’s oldest outings section, the Ski Mountaineers. She edited the American Alpine Club News and served on their Board of Directors. The American Alpine Club awarded her the Angelo Heilprin Citation for Service in 1974. Ruth wrote of her sometimes hair-raising adventures in letters that combine fine nature writing with a keen eye for life in Los Angeles between the Wars.
American climber Lynn Hill says, “This book is a priceless collection of letters and accounts by one of the first women climbers in America. Though from a different era, Ruth Mendenhall’s fun loving attitude and journalistic talent vividly capture the timeless essence of the spirit of adventure.” Malinda Chouinard, of Patagonia, calls the book “an important addition to American women’s climbing history.”
Ruth’s daughter, Valerie Mendenhall Cohen, will read from these lively letters collected in her new book, Woman on the Rocks: the Mountaineering Letters of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, at two locations: April 14, 7pm, Vromans Bookstore (Publishers Weekly Bookstore 2008), 695 E. Colorado Blvd. at N. El Molino in Pasadena. (626)449-5320; April 15, 7:30pm, Griffith Park Ranger Station Auditorium, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, north of Los Feliz Blvd.
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Settling in Pasadena and raising her family there, Ruth embarked on a fifty-year career of mountaineering with her husband, John Mendenhall. Together, they made first ascents in California’s Sierra Nevada, Wyoming’s Tetons, and Canada’s Rockies.
Their California ascents included what are now considered classics: the Swiss Arete, Mount Sill (1938), Third Needle, Mount Whitney (1939), North Peak, Temple Crag (1940), Southeast Buttress, Mount Whitney (1941), Lower Cathedral Spire, Yosemite (1948), the North Face of Mount Williamson (1957) and Mt. Mendenhall in the Sierra Nevada.
For forty years Ruth edited the Mugelnoos, newsletter of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club’s oldest outings section, the Ski Mountaineers. She edited the American Alpine Club News and served on their Board of Directors. The American Alpine Club awarded her the Angelo Heilprin Citation for Service in 1974. Ruth wrote of her sometimes hair-raising adventures in letters that combine fine nature writing with a keen eye for life in Los Angeles between the Wars.
American climber Lynn Hill says, “This book is a priceless collection of letters and accounts by one of the first women climbers in America. Though from a different era, Ruth Mendenhall’s fun loving attitude and journalistic talent vividly capture the timeless essence of the spirit of adventure.” Malinda Chouinard, of Patagonia, calls the book “an important addition to American women’s climbing history.”
Ruth’s daughter, Valerie Mendenhall Cohen, will read from these lively letters collected in her new book, Woman on the Rocks: the Mountaineering Letters of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, at two locations: April 14, 7pm, Vromans Bookstore (Publishers Weekly Bookstore 2008), 695 E. Colorado Blvd. at N. El Molino in Pasadena. (626)449-5320; April 15, 7:30pm, Griffith Park Ranger Station Auditorium, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, north of Los Feliz Blvd.
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Wynne Benti
760-872-1524
http://www.spotteddogpress.com
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