JACKSON, Wyo. — To honor Women’s History Month, join Buckrail to look back at the 101 years that have elapsed since the first known woman climbed the Grand Teton. Enjoy the timeline of impressive feats below.
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- Aug. 23, 1923: Eleanor Davis becomes first woman to summit the Grand Teton with Albert Ellingwood
- 1926: Davis becomes the first woman to climb Mount Moran
- 1930s: Irene Ayres completes first ascents with brother Fred Ayres, Traverse Peak, Rock of Ages, Bivouac Peak’s West Ridge, West Horn; as well as first female ascents of Disappointment Peak, Mount Owen and Mount Moran’s Skillet Glacier
- Aug. 3, 1939: Margaret Smith (now Smith Craighead), Margaret Bedell, Ann Sharples and Mary Whittemore complete the first “manless” ascent of the Grand Teton
- 1940s: Elizabeth Cowles does the first female ascents of Buck Mountain and Veiled Peak, and first ascents of Mount Moran and Grand Teton via the north ridges
- Early 1940s: Betty Woolsey skis Teton Pass and opens many of the runs, shuttling and guiding ski clients through her outfit Trail Creek Ranch
- 1965: Irene Beardsley (who was pregnant at the time) and Sue Swedlund complete first all-female ascent of the North Face of the Grand Teton
- 1970s: Jane Baldwin becomes first backcountry ranger for Grand Teton National Park in 1974; Patty McDonald becomes second in 1975; Anne-Marie Rizzie becomes first Jenny Lake climbing ranger in 1977; Jean Dempsey becomes the second in 1978
- 1980: Barb Eastman and Anne Macquarie complete the first all-female ascent of Mount Moran’s Direct South Buttress, becoming Jenny Lake climbing rangers the same year
- 1981: Catherine Cullinane (now Cullinane Jackson) becomes the first female Exum guide and the first female guide in the Tetons
- 1997: Kristen Ulmer makes first female ski descent of the Grand Teton
- 1999: Georgie Stanley and Supy Bullard lead an all-women’s team from the Tetons to climb Cho Oyu, becoming the first American women’s team to climb an 8,000-meter peak without supplemental oxygen or Sherpa support
- 2004: A.J. Cargill makes the first female telemark ski descent of the Grand Teton
- March 7, 2007: Julia Niles and Lisa Van Sciver make the first all-female ski descent of the Grand Teton
- 2010: Dani DeRuyter makes first female snowboard descent of the Grand Teton
- 2012: At 18, Morgan McGlashon becomes youngest female to ski the Grand Teton
- June 6, 2013: Kit DesLauriers becomes first female to solo ski the Grand Teton (In 2006, DesLauriers was the first person, man or woman, ever to ski the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent.)
*The above list was compiled in 2023 with help from author and podcaster Christian Beckwith, and Molly Loomis’ 2015 article “Women on the Tetons” in Jackson Hole Magazine.
