RARE 1911 ANNIE PECK Search for Apex of America PERU BOLIVIA MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

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RARE 1911 ANNIE PECK Search for Apex of America PERU BOLIVIA MOUNTAIN CLIMBING:
$159.99

A SEARCH FOR THE APEX OF AMERICA: HIGH MOUNTAIN CLIMBING IN PERU AND BOLIVIA, INCLUDING THE CONQUEST OF HUASCARAN WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE BELOW

By Annie Smith Peck

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[New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1911]. First Edition.

Thick 8vo / Hardcover / 370 pp / Illustrated / Frontis / Shaky / Heavily worn boards / Ex-library; usual library markings, card pocket, library plate, etc / Missing title/copyright page / First present page is half-title / Folding map, top edge dampstain / Reading or research copy /

SCARCE early Andes mountaineering title from one of the most important female mountaineers in history, Annie Peck and her journeys through the Andes, especially the climb of Huascaran.Very difficultto find in any condition. Has listed at over $700.

I\'m selling most of my mountaineering library, including some scarce mountain climbing titles- please see my other listings!

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Annie Smith Peck(October 19, 1850 – July 18, 1935) was anAmericanmountaineer.

Peck was the youngest of five children, born to Ann Power Smith Peck (1820–1896) and George Bacheler Peck (1807–1882), a lawyer, member of the House of Representatives, and a coal and wood merchant. Her brothers, George Bacheler Peck (1843–1934), a doctor, William Peck (1848–1939), Principle of ProvidenceClassical High School, and John Brownell Peck (1845–1923), an engineer, merchant, teacher and farmer, instilled a sense of competitiveness in Peck at a young age. The Pecks also had another daughter, Emily Peck (1847–1847), who died shortly after she was born.

Peck attended grammar school,Dr. Stockbridge’s School for Young Ladies, in Providence. She then attended Providence High School andRhode Island Normal School(now Rhode Island College), a preparatory school for teachers. Peck briefly stayed on in Rhode Island, teachingLatinat Providence High School. Like her father and brothers before her, Peck had wanted to attendBrown Universityafter her work at the Normal School. However, Peck was refused admission on the basis of her gender. Rather than attending Brown as her brothers had done, Peck moved toMichiganin an effort to live on her own and support herself, where she worked as a preceptress teaching languages and mathematics atSaginaw High Schooluntil 1874. While teaching in Saginaw, Peck decided to further her education, but when she wrote home to tell her family about her plans to earn a full degree at a university, they thought it was “perfect folly” for her to want to go to college and graduate at the very old age of twenty-seven. Nonetheless, Peck wrote to her father, explaining, “Why you should recommend for me a course so different from that which you pursue, or recommend to your boys is what I can see no reason for except the example of our great grandfathers and times are changing rapidly in that respect. I certainly cannot change. I have wanted it for years and simply hesitated on account of age but 27 does not seem as old now as it did. I should hope for 20 years of good work afterwards.\" After hearing that Peck insisted on earning the same education as her brothers, her father agreed to support her education, and so Peck attended theUniversity of Michigan, which had just opened its doors to women in 1871.[1]

She enrolled at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1878 with a major in Greek and Classical Languages. In 1881, she earned a master’s degree at University of Michigan, specializing in Greek. Peck then went toEurope, where she continued her schooling atHannoverandAthens.[2]Peck was the first woman to attendAmerican School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. In 1885, she discovered her enthusiasm formountaineering, and ascended the three hundred feet summit ofCape Misenumin Italy and small mountain passes in Switzerland, includingTheodul Pass, at ten thousand feet. While in Greece, she climbedMount Hymettusand Mount Pentecus, both between three and four thousand feet. From 1881 to 1892 she was a pioneeringprofessorin the field ofarcheologyandLatinatPurdueandSmith College. She began to make money on thelecturecircuit, and by 1892 she gave up teaching and made her living by lecturing and writing about archeology, mountaineering and her travels. She scaled a number of moderate-sized mountains in Europe and in the United States, includingMount Shasta. In 1895, she climbed theMatterhornand suddenly became quite well known. However, her notoriety came about not in terms of her mountain conquest, but because of the clothes she wore to climb it: a long tunic, climbing boots, and a pair of pants. At the time, women were being arrested for wearing trousers in public, and so Peck’s climbing costume not only brought about serious hullabaloo in the press, but also prompted public discussion and debate (for example, in theNew York Times) on the question of what women should do and what they can be.

She began to climb, lecture and explore inLatin America. She promotedPan-Americanism(peace between the Americas) and geographic education through her lectures, articles and books. She was fluent inSpanish,PortugueseandFrench.

She climbedMount OrizabaandMount PopocatepetlinMexicoin 1897. Although, already over fifty years old, Peck wanted to make a very special climb. She travelled toSouth Americain 1903, looking for a mountain taller thanAconcaguainArgentina(6960m). She climbedMount SoratainBoliviain 1904, and in 1908 she was the first person to climb MountNevado HuascaráninPeru(6768m) (she climbed the north peak, the south peak is actually taller and was first climbed by Germans in 1932, fourteen years later), accompanied by twoSwissmountain guides. She wrote a book about her experiences calledThe Search for the Apex of America: High Mountain Climbing in Peru and Bolivia, including the Conquest of Huascaran, with Some Observations on the Country and People Below. Recognized for her contributions to South American trade and industry, Peru awarded her a gold medal for her exploration in “biographical and industrial data,” and for “her ascents to the lofty summits of the Peruvian Andes.”[3]

Due to a severesnowstorm, Peck misjudged the measuring altitude by about 600m, calculating it as 7300m high. She was later shown incorrect from a recalculation done byFanny Bullock Workman. The 6648m northern peak of the Huascarán was namedCumbre Aña Peckin her honor in 1928. Peck scaled mountains into her old age, including a first ascent of one of the peaks on the five peakedMount Coropunain Peru in 1911. An ardent suffragist, when she reached the top of Coropuna, Peck placed “Women’s Vote” banner on top of peak in honor of the Joan of Arc Suffrage League, of which she would become president in 1914.[4]After her return she wrote two books,Industrial and Commercial South AmericaandThe South American Tour: A Descriptive Guide. Both books were quite popular withdiplomats, businessmen, corporations, politicians and tourists.

In 1929–30, Peck traveled by air around South America in order to show how easy and safe it was for tourists. Her journey was the longest by air by a North American traveler at the time. She published her fourth and last book after her returnFlying Over South America: Twenty Thousand Miles by Air. In 1930, she was awarded the Decoration al Merito by Luis E. Feliú, the consulate of Chile, on behalf of the Chilean Government.[5]

Peck started a world tour in 1935 but after visitingGreeceshe became ill and returned home to New York City. She died in 1935 and is buried in Providence, Rhode Island.

Huascarán(Spanish pronunciation:[waskaˈɾan]) orNevado Huascaránis amountainin thePeruvianprovince ofYungay(Ancash Departament), situated in theCordillera Blancarange of the westernAndes. The highest southern summit of Huascarán (Huascarán Sur) is the highest point inPeru, northern part of Andes (north ofLake Titicaca) and in all of theEarth\'sTropics. Huascarán is the fourth highest mountain in theWestern HemisphereafterAconcagua,Ojos del Salado, andMonte Pissis. The mountain was named afterHuáscar, a 16th-centuryIncaemperor who was theSapa Incaof theInca empire.[3]

The mountain has two distinct summits, the higher with an elevation of 6,768 metres (22,205ft).[1]The core of Huascarán, like much of the Cordillera Blanca, consists ofCenozoiceragranite.[4]

Huascarán gives its name toHuascarán National Parkwhich surrounds it, and is a popular location for trekking andmountaineering. Huascarán is normally climbed from the village of Musho to the west via a high camp in the col that separates the two summits, known as La Garganta. The ascent normally takes 5–7 days, the main difficulties being the large crevasses that often block the route.[5]The normal route is of moderate difficulty and rated between PD and AD (depending on the conditions of the mountain) according to theInternational French Adjectival System. Other more challenging routes to the summit exist, such as on the west face.

The Huascarán summit is one of the points on the Earth\'s surface farthest from the Earth\'s center,[6]closely behind the farthest point,ChimborazoinEcuador.[1]

The summit of Huascarán is the place on Earth with the smallest gravitational force.[7]

Climbing history[edit]

The summit was first reached in July 1932 by a jointGerman–Austrianexpedition.[8]The north peak (Huascarán Norte) had previously been climbed in 1908 by aU.S.expedition that includedAnnie Smith Peck.[9]

In 1989, a group of eightamateurmountaineers, the \"Social Climbers\", held what was recognised by theGuinness Book of Records(1990 edition) to be \"the world\'s highest dinner party\" on top of the mountain, as documented byChris DarwinandJohn Amyin their bookThe Social Climbers, and raised£10,000 for charity.[10][11]