Through the ages, women, it seems, have always had to play second fiddle to men, especially with regard to mountain clothing.
These days there are almost as many women to be seen on Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) as there are men, but this is a fairly recent phenomenon. For hundreds of years following the first documented ascent of the mountain in 1639, women were barely mentioned.
Indeed, one of the earliest descriptions of an ascent by a female dates from over 130 years later, in 1776, in an account written by an unnamed writer, who ascended on the Snowdon Ranger path with a Miss Middleton (his sister) and a Mr P. Yorke.
One of the first documented ascents to be written by a woman was in August 1796, when a Mrs Griffiths and Mrs Bell ascended Yr Wyddfa up the Snowdon Ranger path with the guide Ellis Griffiths. They didn’t make it to the summit because of the wind, and it was written that: “For the honour of female resolution it must be recorded that the ladies advanced some yards further than the gentlemen thought proper to do.”
It must be said that the style of the female writers also contrasted noticeably to that of their male counterparts of the time, often being more personal in detail rather than just a physical description. Orra Hitchcock and her husband Edward ascended Snowdon in 1850; she noted the names of their ponies – Swift, Jane Lord, Nutmeg and Isabella, while Edward focussed on the types of rock they encountered.
Most women ascending Yr Wyddfa at this time did so on the back of a pony, led by a guide, while most men walked. Thomas Letts (of diary fame) ascended with others in 1832, hiring a horse and a guide. He wrote: “We commenced the ascent at half-past two by a path so easy that I felt quite ashamed of the course we had taken; especially when we met a lady returning down on foot.”
Women on Yr Wyddfa in olden times
The left photo above dates from 1895, the year before the railway opened, and shows women by the Saddle on the Rhyd Ddu path. The middle picture is a little later, showing women at the foot of Allt Moses on the Llanberis path, and little had changed; the long skirts or dresses dominate their attire. However, by the latter 1920s (right) shorter skirts and stout shoes were the order of the day.
But did people manage to stay dry in those days?
Rain gear – of sorts – was developed for mountain walking men in Victorian times, though they had to make do with the limited materials available at the time. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they often wore heavy woollen clothing which, while warm, was not very waterproof and became very heavy when wet.
By the early 20th century, oilskins became popular. These were garments made from canvas or cotton, treated with linseed oil to make them waterproof. Initially used by sailors and fishermen, they were adopted by mountain walkers for their waterproof properties.
However, these developments were for the men, and it wasn’t until the 1920s that the first items were available for women to purchase. These tended to follow the fashion of the time; women previously used capes on the mountain to stay warm and dry so they simply produced rubberised capes.
In the 1930s, gabardine fabric, invented by Thomas Burberry, became a popular choice. Gabardine is a tightly woven fabric that is water-resistant and more breathable than oilskins, making it a better option for outdoor activities. But even by the 1940s and 1950s the long jackets worn by women over skirts were really better suited to urban wear than being out on the hills.
It was Alfred Wainwright (who did much of this walking in the 50’s and 60s) who first said: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing”, but even he was being optimistic. He swore by his Harris tweed jacket, which was warm, tough, breathable and shower-proof; his woollen jumper was utilised when it was cold, and he donned his cotton mac when it rained. But there’s no way he stayed dry.
Female hill walkers were by now also wearing trousers, and the introduction of synthetic materials in the 1960s saw further advancements, with Gore-Tex appearing in the late 1970s, but again it was mostly for men’s clothing. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that the first technical clothing appeared for women.
The last 30 years or so have seen great progress in women’s clothing, with the realisation by manufacturers that women’s bodies are a different shape to men’s, and that women deserve the same standard of clothing as men. I can certainly think back to a time when women simply couldn’t get hold of outdoor clothing with the same spec as men’s, and even today I’m not convinced that the greater variations in women’s shapes and sizes (arm length, leg length, bust and hip size) are always available, meaning that women have less choice than men.
But here’s the rub. Is it possible that there’s less available for women because so many women shun traditional waterproof jackets and trousers? Walking in tight leggings is what many younger women prefer, and I personally know a number of women who wouldn’t be seen dead in unflattering (their word) jackets and waterproof overtrousers. Their leggings may be shower-proof, but many is the time when I’ve encountered women on the mountain who have got thoroughly wet and cold because these inadequate leggings is all they have.
There’s no reason why women should always be destined to be the wetter sex on the mountain; there’s clearly still work to be done.