Helburn Margaret

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Biografie:
Margaret Helburn (1889-1980)
Margaret Helburn glows in my memory as the first woman Alpinist I met my first season-it was her first season, too -actually in the Alps. It was July 1920. She was sitting among the rosy flowering rhododendron covering the slopes below the Montenvert. We were soon discussing
the great possibilities surrounding us. These first moments of shared excitement are never forgotten. We remained friends for life.
She was the daughter of Frank S. Mason, one of the founders of the Appalachian Mountain Club and a dazzling and determined personality, both on rocks and as a longtime social worker in the Metropolitan Boston area. Both she and her husband Willard were active members of the AMC and experienced summer and winter climbers in the White Mountain, taking their young sons and daughter all over the Presidential Range 'as soon as they could keep up a reasonable pace'. In 1922 they started the small group 'the Bemis Crew', who met annually in February to scale the icy slopes of Mount Washington. The fierce winter cold, deep snow and freezing winds mean Alpine conditions. Below timberline heavy snowshoes are used, higher up crampons and ice axe. Trail breaking and carrying equipment needed strength and energy; of these they had plenty. Often the party divided into 2 and started a traverse from opposite ends so that the downward route was a well-broken track. This made longer expeditions possible and was excellent training for what lay ahead in the Alps. Margaret at this early stage did the first winter ascent of Katahdin Chimney, Maine.
Her first season, 1920, she climbed the Breithorn, the Moine, Dent du Géant, Dent du Requin, Matterhorn.
Then followed another excellent season, 1925: Monte Rosa, Lyskamm (traverse), Dom-Täschhorn (traverse), Weisshorn, Mont Blanc (traverse, via Dome du Gouter, down Mont Blanc du Tacul and Col du Midi), Wellenkuppe, Untergabelhorn, Riffelberg, Trifthorn and Col Durand from Schonbühl to Zermatt, Charmoz.
In 1927 Margaret had a splendid season with Miriam Underhill, with the guides Armand Charlet and Alfred Coullet. They climbed the Grepon from the Mer de Glace and were told they were the first women to do this climb. The same 4 made a new route on the W face of the Aiguille du Midi. Also in July she and Miriam did the first tourist ascent of the Torre Grande (Via Miriam), with Angelo Dimai, Antonio Dimai and Angelo Dibona. This side of the Torre Grande rises almost perpendicularly and you float up on delicate minute fingerholds.
Unfortunately there is no space here to give the details. These are recorded in Miriam Underhill's classic account, Give Me the Hills. Besides these ascents, Margaret had a fine list of other climbs, many with Miriam. Among them: Charmoz-Grepon traverse; Aiguilles de Ravanel, Mummery, Qui Remue; Peigne; Meije Traverse, and in the Dolomites Col Rosa; Croda da Lago, via Formin con Pompanin Camin; Punta Fiammes, via Damai; Marmolata - S-wall; Fünffingerspilze, Schmidt Camin; Cimone dell a Pala traverse; Rosena traverse;
Campanile and Cima di Val di Roda; in 1929, Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies. Margaret was a member of the GHM, had a large circle of mountain friends and died at the age of 91, still enjoying memories of her happy climbing days.
Dorothy Pilley Richards
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 86, 1981, Seite 265


Geboren am:
1889
Gestorben am:
1980