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17-524: The Pinnacle Club – the UK’s only national rock-climbing club for women – was founded in 1921 by Emily Kelly (known as Pat) , who first conceived of the idea and then, through her enthusiasm and energy, made it reality. In the 1920s, although increasing numbers of women were coming to climbing, they remained very much a minority. Though the Fell & Rock Climbing Club , established in1906 for Lake District climbing,

34-474: A leg in the war and she helped him to regain his climbing abilities with an artificial leg. At the end of 1924 they moved to Cambridge with their son Jocelin who had been born on 25 October 1919. A daughter named Marcia was born on 11 March 1925, she went on to marry Peter Newbolt, the grandson of Sir Henry John Newbolt . Winthrop Young first visited Norway with her father in 1921, on a climbing expedition that made her "ecstatic". The same year, she co-founded

51-546: A women-only club for rock climbers. Their letter garnered support from its editor, C E Montague , who, alongside his wife, were also climbers. This resulted in the founding of the Pinnacle Club , the first rock-climbing club solely for women, at Pen-y-Gwryd in north Wales on 26 March 1921. Kelly became the Pinnacle Club's first honorary secretary, and Winthrop Young its first president. A year after forming

68-663: The Alpine Journal after Winthrop Young's death noted that she had earned "her own special place in mountaineering history" for her involvement with the Pinnacle Club. She was on the committee of the Norwegian Alpine Club and the Fell & Rock Climbing Club . Winthrop Young's climbing record included many ascents in Britain as well as several trips to the Alps, usually with her husband. Among these climbs in

85-804: The Lake District , Skye , the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District – all places where the Club runs meets today. In 1921, there were just nine meets in the calendar – in 2019 (before the Covid pandemic), there were 26. From the start, members also regularly climbed abroad, many having extensive Alpine experience and achieving many Alpine first female ascents. Today members continue to travel throughout Europe and beyond, enjoying all types of climbing: sport , trad and mountaineering . By 1945,

102-476: The Lake District . Those who watched her expressed their consternation at seeing a lone person ascending its rocky arete. Kelly actively encouraged many women to climb. By 1920, her and her husband's office was being used as a base for her work, which culminated in a letter jointly written by Eleanor Winthrop Young being published in the Manchester Guardian in which she proposed the founding of

119-492: The Pinnacle Club , a club for women rock climbers that she felt would "serve the double purpose of promoting the independent development of the climbing art amongst women and of bringing into touch with one another those who are already united by the bond of common love for a noble sport". She served as the club's first president, and its inaugural meeting was at the Welsh pass Pen-y-Gwryd on 26 March 1921. An article published in

136-694: The Alps was a "spectacular" traverse of the Hohstock made by Eleanor, Geoffrey and Jocelin with a mountain guide in 1931. She also ascended the Rimpfischhorn in the same year. With a guide, she made the first ascent of the southernmost peak of the Fusshörner . Winthrop Young edited her father's book, Norway: the Northern Playground (1941), to which her husband appended a biographical sketch of Slingsby. The couple also co-wrote

153-464: The Club had just under 100 members, and this growth continued through the following decades. The Club in 2021 has 170 members, the youngest in their 20s and the oldest in their 90s. Eminent climbers who have been members over the years include Nea Morin , Dorothy Pilley , Brede Arkless , Jill Lawrence , Gwen Moffat and Angela Soper . The first international event held in Llanberis in 1984 saw

170-611: The Pinnacle Club, Pat Kelly died as a result of injuries she sustained during a mysterious climbing accident on Tryfan on 17 April at the end of the 1922 Easter meet of the Pinnacle Club in North Wales. Right at the end of the day, she was found lying on her own, severely injured, at the base of apparently easy-to-climb rocks, albeit with one climbing boot missing. She was taken to Caernarvonshire and Anglesey Infirmary in Bangor , but died some days later on 26 April 1922 from fractures to

187-531: The base of her skull. Eleanor Winthrop Young Eleanor "Len" Winthrop Young (1895–1994) was a British climber . She was a co-founder and the first president of the Pinnacle Club , a British women's climbing club, and made numerous ascents in the Alps and many in the United Kingdom. Eleanor Slingsby was born in 1895 in Carleton-in-Craven , West Riding of Yorkshire . She was

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204-583: The eldest child within a large family. She took up climbing in 1914, and is reported to have been "a graceful and bold balance climber". By 1917 she was married to the climber Harry Mills Kelly (1884-1980). They lived and shared an office together at 29 Fountain Street in Levenshulme , Manchester where he worked as an insurance clerk. One of her best known achievements was to solo a rock climb known as Jones' route up Scafell pinnacle from Deep Ghyll in

221-401: The first female ascent of an E5 by Jill Lawrence. In 2016 a second event was held with over eighty climbers of all standards, from making their first traditional climb to climbing E7. Pinnacle Club minute books. Pat Kelly (climber) Martha Emily "Pat" Kelly (née Bowler) (Mar Qtr 1873 – 26 April 1922) was an early female climber, and a founder of the Pinnacle Club . Kelly was

238-605: The youngest of five children born to William Cecil Slingsby (1849–1920), a mill owner and climber with extensive experience in Norway who became known as "the father of Norwegian mountaineering". Slingsby introduced each of his children to climbing at a young age around their local village. In 1902, aged seven, Eleanor first met English mountaineer Geoffrey Winthrop Young (1876–1958) at her home in Carleton-in-Craven. She married him in 1918; by that time, he had lost

255-532: Was open to both men and women, women were excluded from most climbing clubs. Women still tended to be viewed as secondary partners, with men predominantly taking the lead. The Pinnacle Club was founded to offer an alternative – a space where women could literally ‘learn the ropes’ together. Although the Ladies' Alpine Club and Ladies' Scottish Climbing Club had been set up in 1907 and 1908 respectively, they were focused on mountaineering. The Pinnacle Club, by contrast,

272-580: Was primarily about rock climbing. Its objectives were – and remain – to ‘foster the independent development of rock climbing amongst women and bring together those interested in the pursuit’.   The Club was officially inaugurated on March 26, 1921 at a meeting in the Pen y Gwryd Inn, which still stands today just below Pen y Pass in Snowdonia . The Club began with 43 members, with Pat Kelly as Club Secretary and Eleanor Winthrop-Young as President. A letter

289-526: Was published in the Manchester Guardian soon afterwards, advertising the club’s existence and asking interested women to contact Pat Kelly. Tragically, Pat died the following year following a climbing accident in North Wales, but the Club she founded lived on. The Club organised weekend or week-long ‘meets’ around the UK, where members could come together to climb. Early venues included North Wales ,

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