EMMELINE FREDA DU FAUR, THE PASSION FOR CLIMBING

Today, The Grandma has received wonderful news of one of her closest friends, Tonyi Tamaki, the Kiwi from Rotorua.

It's been two long years since The Grandma visited her in Auckland, coinciding with the FIFA Women's World Cup. Now it's summer in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Tonyi has decided to spend the Christmas holidays with her Catalan friends whom she has known since one day she landed in Barcelona in 2018 to play rugby in a very nearby town, cradle of this sport in Catalan lands.

The Grandma is very happy with this upcoming visit and is already preparing a series of activities to enjoy a wonderful Christmas on the European continent visiting France and Switzerland, where Joseph de Ca'th Lon awaits them.

Tonyi lives in a country where nature is present in every corner and as a great lover of mountains, she likes climbing and hiking, a hobby she shares with The Grandma and Claire Fontaine, as well as ornithology and scuba diving.

Precisely, on a day like today in 1910, Emmeline Freda Du Faur, the Australian mountaineer, was credited as the first woman to climb Aoraki/Mount Cook, the New Zealand's tallest mountain.

More information: Wild

Emmeline Freda Du Faur (16 September 1882-13 September 1935) was an Australian mountaineer, credited as the first woman to climb New Zealand's tallest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook. 

Du Faur was a leading amateur climber of her day. She was the first female high mountaineer known to be active in New Zealand, although she never lived there.

Du Faur was born in Croydon, Sydney, on 16 September 1882. She was the daughter of Frederick Eccleston Du Faur (1832-1915), a public servant who, after retirement, became a stock, station, and land agent, and patron of the arts, and his second wife, Blanche Mary Elizabeth Woolley (1845–1906), daughter of Professor John Woolley and sister of Emmeline M. D. Woolley.

Du Faur was educated at Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School. She probably developed her passion for mountaineering when she lived with her family near the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. As a young woman, she explored the area and taught herself to rock climb. She did not finish nursing training due to her sensitive and highly-strung nature. Thanks to an inheritance from her aunt Emmeline, she had an independent income that enabled her to travel and climb.

Du Faur summered in New Zealand. In late 1906, she saw photographs of Aoraki/Mount Cook at the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch. This prompted her to travel to the Hermitage hotel at Mount Cook Village, where she became determined to climb to the snow-capped summit, managing to do so four years later.

In 1908, a second trip to Aoraki/Mount Cook led to Du Faur's introduction to a New Zealand guide, Peter Graham. Graham agreed to teach Du Faur ropework and add snow and ice climbing to her skill on rocks. Du Faur found this freedom an enjoyable escape from the constraints and frustrations of family and society.

In 1909, Du Faur returned to undertake several climbs of increasing difficulty, the first of which was a significant ascent of Mount Sealy on 19 December 1909. Though these climbs were intended to be just Graham and Du Faur, social norms of propriety at the time did not look kindly on an overnight climbing expedition composed solely of an unmarried woman and a male guide. Thus, a chaperone was enlisted, and Du Faur committed to wearing a skirt to just below the knee over knickerbockers and long puttees while she climbed. Still, she received criticism from both men and women for her choices in athleticism and dress.

Following her notoriety, she would dispense with a chaperone but retain her customary climbing attire. It pleased her that her attire afforded an element of femininity to upset critics and challenge existing stereotypes of physically active women.

In 1910, Du Faur spent three months at the Dupain Institute of Physical Education in Sydney training with Muriel "Minnie" Cadogan (1885-1929), who became her life partner. After the training, Du Faur returned to Aoraki/Mount Cook in November 1910.

On 3 December 1910, Du Faur became the first woman to climb to the summit of Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest peak at 3,760 metres. Her guides included Peter and Alex (Alec) Graham, and together they ascended in a record six hours.

On the return trip from the summit, Du Faur was photographed in front of a boulder to commemorate the historic climb. The boulder, now called Freda's Rock is located approximately 200 metres into the Hooker Valley Track at Mount Cook National Park.

Du Faur made many other noteworthy climbs. In the same season as her Aoraki/Mount Cook ascent in 1910, she climbed Mounts De la Beche (2,979 metres) and Green (2,828 metres), and was the first person to climb Chudleigh (2,944 metres).

In the next climbing season, she scaled a virgin peak now named Du Faur Peak (2,330 metres) after her. She also made the first ascents of Nazomi (2,925 metres) and Mount Dampier (3,420 metres), and the second ascents of Mount Tasman (3,497 metres) and Mount Lendenfeld (3,192 metres).

In her final season, she made the first ascents of Mount Pibrac (2,567 metres) and Mount Cadogan (2,398 metres)), both of which she named. Perhaps her most notable climb was in January 1913 with Peter Graham and David (Darby) Thomson, when they made the first grand traverse of all three peaks of Aoraki/Mount Cook. This grand travers' is now regarded as a classic climb of New Zealand's Southern Alps and continues to be associated with Du Faur's name.

On 10 February 1913, the same climbing party made the first traverse of Mount Sefton (3,149 metres). Du Faur stopped climbing the next month.

Du Faur and her partner, Muriel Cadogan, moved to England in 1914, spending time in Bournemouth. Though they had intended to climb the European Alps, Canada, and the Himalayas, World War I put an end to their plans. The following year, Du Faur published her book The Conquest of Mount Cook in London. It proved important for its record of her mountaineering feats and her approach to climbing.

In June 1929, Cadogan died. Du Faur returned to Australia, where she lived in Dee Why, Sydney. At first, she lived with her brother's family and later in her own cottage. Her main interest was bushwalking in Dee Why and Collaroy. She suffered from depression at the loss of Cadogan, and on 13 September 1935, she fatally poisoned herself by inhaling a quantity of coal gas.

She had been, in 1908, the principal beneficiary of her aunt Emmeline's will and her own will, benefiting Jean Lord, was contested by relatives who disputed her sanity. The Coroner, after examining Du Faur's notebook and several letters, denied the claim, finding her the opposite of insane.

Du Faur was privately interred in the Church of England cemetery at Manly, Sydney.

More information: Stories Of Her

I was the first unmarried woman to climb 
in New Zealand and in consequence, 
I received all the hard knocks, 
until one day when I awoke more or less famous 
in the mountaineering world, 
after which I could and I’d do exactly 
as seemed to me best… I gained the summit… 
feeling very little, very lonely and much inclined to cry.

Emmeline Freda du Faur