​"A woman who has done good work in the scholastic world doesn't like to be called a good woman scholar. Call her a good scholar and let it go at that... I have climbed 1,500 feet higher than any man in the United States. Don't call me a woman mountain climber."

• MOUNTAIN CLIMBER
• FIRST known person to climb Mount Huascaran, the highest peak in the Andes Mountains
• Paid her own way to bachelor's and master's degrees in Greek and classical languages, after which she taught at both the primary and college level
• FIRST woman to enroll at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece
• FIRST known woman to climb Mount Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico
• She tried and failed to reach the summit of Mount Huascaran five times, due in large part to inexperienced and belligerent male climbers on her team
• Also an active suffragist, she planted a "Votes for Women" flag on the top of Nevado Coropuna, Peru's second-highest peak
• At a time when women were sometimes arrested for wearing pants, Peck was almost as famous for her climbing outfit as she was for her climbs -- other female climbers usually wore dresses!
• Despite growing up in a wealthy family, she financed all of her expeditions on her own, getting funds from speaking engagements and writing about her adventures
• ​She continued climbing until she was 82 years old
• The peak of Mount Huascaran was named after her: Cumbre Ana Peck
• Descended from the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams

Photo by Gray (Lake Linden, Mich.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Climbing Controversy

After Peck finally reached the summit of Mount Huascaran, she claimed to have climbed 24,000 feet, higher than any other woman. Fannie Workman, another female climber who had previously held the record, paid a team $13,000 to repeat the climb and measure the peak, which they discovered to be only 21,800 feet. Fannie was once again in the lead with her her climb up Nun Kun Pinnacle in the Himalayas. However, she had claimed the height at 23,263 feet, while it is, actually, only 22,735 feet.

Bibliography: Cummins, Julie. Women Explorers: Perils, Pistols, and Petticoats. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. Print.
Kimberly, Hannah. A Woman's Place Is at the Top. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2017. Print.
Maggs, Sam. Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2016. Print.
Ross, Michael E. A World of Her Own: 24 Amazing Women Explorers and Adventurers. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2014. Print.

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Being Awesome Doesn't Always Come Easy

How we deal with failure is what separates the Awesome from the average. Peck accomplished a lot, but only because she never gave up. Here's a timeline created by the AWL Librarian with some of Peck's major successes and -- equally as important -- major failures:

Books by this Awesome Woman

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

Research

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