Marie Paradis

Marie Paradis (* 1778 in Bourgeat, Chamonix ; † 1839 ) was a French alpinist. In the summer of 1808 she was the first woman to climb Mont Blanc .

Jacques Balmat , who, together with Michel-Gabriel Paccard , was the first to climb Mont Blanc on August 8, 1786 , and two other mountain guides , spontaneously took the young woman on their tour, carrying her on some parts of the route. When they returned successfully, Paradis became a famous personality in the region as “Marie Montblanc” and opened a good tea bar. The Augsburg Ordinari Postzeitung wrote about her ascent:

“Last month 3 companies, each consisting of 5 to 6 people, climbed the 14,500-foot Montblanc in the former Savoy, the highest mountain in the ancient world, to its highest peak. Among the people who happily undertook the venture was a woman named Paradis. One of these companies did not rest at all in the ascent and descent, but marched away for 22 hours. - When they returned, all these people complained of eye pain because the snow and ice over which they had to hike had blinded their faces. ”-“ Marie Paradies had suffered less from these bad coincidences alone because she had a double pile in front of her eyes and had rubbed the face heavily with soap. "

As the second woman and on her own, Henriette d'Angeville reached the summit of Mont Blanc in 1838.

literature

• Fergus Fleming: Up. The first conquests of the Alpine peaks . Piper Verlag, Munich 2003 ISBN 3492247512 .
• Tanja Wirz: summiteers. A Gender History of Alpinism in Switzerland 1840-1940 . Hier + Jetzt-Verlag, Baden 2007 ISBN 978-3-03919-033-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Augsburgische Ordinari Postzeitung, Nro. 200, Saturday, Aug. 20, Anno 1808, pp. 1f., And Nro. 108, Saturday, May 5th, Anno 1810, p. 3, as digitized version .