Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker was a British mountaineer, born in 1836 in British North America in what later became Canada, and the first woman to climb the Matterhorn. She began climbing modestly in 1858 on her doctor advice to take up walking as a cure for rheumatism, with her father Frank Walker, her brother Horace Walker and the Oberland guide Melchior Anderegg, and became the first woman to regularly climb in the Alps. Her early successes included the first ascent of the Balmhorn in 1864 and first female ascents of the Eiger, the Wetterhorn and Piz Bernina. On 21 July 1871 she stood atop the Matterhorn and gained world renown.