Margaret Claudia Brevoort

Christian and Ulrich Almer, M. Brevoort, their nephew WAB Coolidge and the bitch Tschingel

Margaret Claudia Brevoort , called Meta Brevoort (* 1825 - December 19, 1876 in Dorking , England) was an American mountaineer.

Life

She spent her young years in the Couvent Sacré Coeur in Paris . In the 1860s and 1870s you made some important and difficult climbs in the Alps . In 1865 she stood on the summit of Mont Blanc . In 1871, within a few days, she was the first woman to climb the Dent Blanche , the Weisshorn , and the Bietschhorn . In 1874 she carried out the first winter ascent of the Wetterhorn and the Jungfrau . However, she was denied two of her greatest alpine goals: her ambitions to be the first woman to climb the Matterhorn and the first ascent of the Meije in Haut-Dauphiné , where she accidentally climbed the Pic Central instead of the ten meter higher Grand Pic, failed . Brevoort's role model and rival was Lucy Walker , who began her remarkable mountaineering career in 1859 at the age of 28. It was Lucy Walker who, after learning of Meta's plans, quickly gathered a rope team led by Melchior Anderegg in 1871 to climb the Matterhorn. Immediately before Meta arrived in Zermatt , Lucy was the first woman to stand on the summit of this famous Valais summit. A few weeks later, Meta was the first woman to traverse the Horn from Zermatt to Breuil .

Meta Brevoort was the aunt of MCAS Coolidge , whom she took to Europe in 1865 when he was 15 years old. She introduced her nephew to alpine mountaineering. Coolidge became an outstanding climber who made more than 1,700 ascents in the Alps. He was the greatest alpine historian of the Victorian Age . Meta Brevoort and W. A. ​​B. Coolidge climbed together for more than ten years. Often they were accompanied by their dog Tschingel (1865–1879). Later she spoke with pride about her dog that she was the only “honorary lady” in the Alpine Club .

Meta and her nephew visited the Dauphiné several times with the intention of climbing the 3,983 m high Meije , but each time they were deterred by bad weather. In 1876 Meta had the last opportunity to climb this famous and difficult mountain for the first time. However, she stayed in the Bernese Oberland to support her nephew in his experiments in the Bernese Alps .

Meta Brevoort died in 1876 in Dorking, England, of a rheumatic fever as a result of a streptococcal infection. At that time she still had great alpine plans, not least an expedition to Everest. Brevoort was buried next to her sister in St Sepulcher's Cemetery in Jericho, Oxford.

In the Haut Daphiné the highest peak of the Grande Ruine , the 3,765 m high Pointe Brevoort , bears her name.

literature

• Caroline Fink, Karin Steinbach: First on the rope - pioneers in rock and ice . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2013, ISBN 978-3-7022-3252-8
• R. Clark: The Victorian Mountaineers . BT Batsford, London 1953