Beatrice Tomasson

Beatrice Tomasson in 1883

Beatrice Sibyl Tomasson (born April 25, 1859 in Barnby Moor near Retford , Nottinghamshire , † February 13, 1947 in Little Benhams , Sussex ) was a British mountaineer . The south face of the Marmolada is one of her most famous first ascents .

Life

Beatrice Tomasson was born in the spring of 1859 as the first daughter of the textile industrialist William Tomasson and his wife Sarah on their parents' estate. She had an older brother, who later became the Nottingham Police Chief and was ennobled in 1906, as well as a younger brother and a sister.

From 1865 she grew up in Ireland , where her father bought land and lived the typical landed gentry life . After her school education, which was probably carried out by private tutors , she went to Germany as a private teacher . In 1879 she worked for a General von Bülow in Potsdam , and in 1883 for a General von Knobloch , also in Potsdam. In that year, after negotiations with a British publisher , she began to translate Felix Dahn's then popular historical novel “ A Battle for Rome ” into English, which was published two years later. In 1885 Tomasson ended her tutoring and returned to England. General von Bülow gave her a horse as a farewell gift, as she had shown herself to be an accomplished rider.

As early as 1883, at the age of 24, Tomasson made his first alpine experiences and lived in Innsbruck for some time in the following years . From 1892 she went on various tours in the Karwendel and Stubai Alps with Edward Lisle Strutt , who later became President of the Alpine Club , where she climbed the Habicht , among other things . In 1894 she became a member of the German and Austrian Alpine Club (DÖAV). During the winter she worked in England, among other things as a private secretary to a wealthy aunt in Yorkshire .

From 1896 Tomasson concentrated on the Dolomites and undertook various tours from Cortina d'Ampezzo , always accompanied by mountain guides . In 1897 these included the first ascent of the Torre del Giubileo , the Cima delle Capre as well as the Cima d'Oltro and the Cima Wilma . Together with the mountain guide Michele Bettega, she mastered the first crossing of the Sass Maor . A year later, in 1898, she climbed the Campanile della Regina Vittoria and Monte Lastei d'Agner for the first time with Bettega . Together with the guides Hans Sepp Pinggera and Friedrich Reinstadler, Tomasson climbed the northeast face of Monte Zebrù and, with Pinggera, the southwest face of the Ortler as the first ascent .

The most important first ascent of Beatrice Tomasson was the south face of the Marmolada. As early as 1900 she had made a first attempt with the guide Luigi Rizzi . A year later, Tomasson, together with Michele Bettega and Bortolo Zagonel, made the first ascent of the south face on July 1, 1901, to Punta Penia, the highest peak of the Marmolada massif. Tomasson was hit in the head by a stone during the twelve hour ascent, but was uninjured. Already on August 15th of this year the announcements of the DÖAV reported about the new important tour. For more than a decade, the route was considered the longest and most difficult climbing tour in the Alps. Tomasson did not lead the way, but was considered the actual initiator of the route, as she otherwise determined the goals and route selection of her rope teams. In the years that followed, there were occasional doubters who did not consider it possible that a woman could plan and manage such a difficult ascent. However, this is opposed by the testimonials of the guides and other statements, so that the climb is undisputed today.

On the occasion of her fiftieth birthday, she had herself portrayed by John Singer Sargent in 1909 . In 1911 Tomasson ended her mountaineering career at the age of 52 by climbing the Campanile Basso together with Angelo Dibona . When the First World War broke out , Tomasson returned to England.

At the age of 61, she married the Scottish landed gentry Patrick Chalmers Mackenzie in 1921 , with whom she lived in seclusion in the years that followed in the common country house "Little Benhams" in Sussex. As a passionate rider, she kept horses until she was eighty and went on hunting and riding holidays to Ireland every year. Her husband died in 1944, three years before her death on February 13, 1947.

literature

• Hermann Reisach: The Legacy of the Wiry Lady. Beatrice Tomasson and the Marmolada South Face . In: Alpenvereinsjahrbuch 2001, pp. 86–95

Web links

• Beatrice Tomasson - climbing pioneer from England, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 14, 2011
• Hermann Reisach: Beatrice Tomasson and the South Face of the Marmolada , The Alpine Journal 2001 (English; PDF file; 5.68 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Reisach: The legacy of the wiry lady. Beatrice Tomasson and the Marmolada South Face . In: Alpine Club Yearbook 2001, p. 93
2. ↑ Beatrice Tomasson on the website of the Mountain Heritage Trust ( Memento of the original of April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on February 3, 2013)