In February 2025, Elise Wortley, Edurne Pasaban and Lotta Hintsa set out from the coastal commune of Bastia to climb Monte Cinto (2,706m/8,877ft) - the highest point on the French island of Corsica.
“If you’re into walking, you’ll probably have heard of the GR20; the really tough route through the middle of Corsica,” Elise says. “Monte Cinto is at the northern end of that. We went in winter when it was totally covered in snow. It was the same when Dorothy was there in 1922.”
A lot of women never got the credit they deserved, and their achievements were written out of history.
The Dorothy in question is Dorothy Pilley Richards, a prominent mountaineer in the early 1920s whose iconic memoir Climbing Days turned 90 this year.
“I don’t really like the word trailblazer,” Elise laughs, “but she really was one. She did all of these routes for the first time, and her book is really funny. She wrote about what she was up against and all the sexism she faced. She went to Corsica and it was her route that we were following. I was dressed in what she would have had in 1922 - so I had hobnail boots, knickerbockers, lots of wool - I was so hot! And we basically visited the bits of the island that she writes about in the chapter. It was the first place she went climbing outside of the UK.”
The adventure was the latest in Wortley’s Women With Altitude project, which sees Elise re-enacting the journeys of history's forgotten women adventurers - while wearing the same gear they would have been wearing at the time.
“When these women were climbing and writing their books they were trying to be taken as seriously as the men, so they rarely wrote about the problems of travelling as a woman, or societal pressures or periods, for example,” says Elise. “I quickly realised that to truly understand what they really went through, I should wear what they had worn at the time. And it’s just become a really big part of it. I love doing the research - ‘what did bras look like in 1838?’ - and leaving the modern stuff behind and going into nature and immersing myself in it.
“People always ask me how the old equipment is, but actually I’ve been surprised by how good it is. It’s super heavy and itchy. It’s often wool. But I've been surprised by how water resistant and quick-drying wool is. It’s not a puffy jacket and waterproof trousers, but it does the job!”
Elise credits a book which she read at 16 for first sparking the project idea.
“I read this book by an explorer called Alexandra David-Néel,” Elise expands. “She did this 14-year journey through Asia, starting in 1910. She left her European life and her husband behind and went off searching for the secrets to Buddhism. She ended up becoming the first western woman to meet the Dalai Lama. She spent years meditating in a cave and walking freezing mountain passes in the Himalayas, dressed in Yak wool.
The men got all the glory and were heroes, while the women were told they were silly for going to do that sort of thing.
“I couldn’t believe I’d never heard about this woman before, and eventually, when I was 27, I went off on my first trip following in her footsteps. Then I came back and started researching more women like her. Now I have this huge list of women who did amazing stuff, but who were overshadowed by their male counterparts, or who were never given book deals or any press coverage.”
Take Dorothy Pilley, for example. “This was at a time when if a woman did a climbing route, men would go ‘oh, a woman did it, it can’t be that important’, so a lot of women never got the credit they deserved, and their achievements were written out of history. No one knows who Dorothy is; but I feel like she should be on our stamps or bank notes. She founded The Pinnacle Club - a climbing club for women which is still active today - so her legacy lives on.”
Indeed, new research from OnePlus (who partnered with Elise for the Corsica trip) recently found that a jaw-dropping 53% of Brits couldn’t name a single female explorer off the top of their heads - and 84% don’t recall learning about any female adventurers during their education. The obvious question is: why?
“Often they were overlooked at the time,” says Elise. “Some of the really far back examples are of pirate queens - so, not quite explorers - but monks tried to write them out of history. When you come to the 1800s and 1900s, they never got book deals. It was really rare, and the press that was written about them was often negative. The men got all the glory and were heroes, while the women were told they were silly for going to do that sort of thing. Because they were never written about, other women didn't really see that they could be in that space."
Women could have their character questioned in the 1800s or early 1900s for hiking or climbing, with potential impacts for their families or those around them. When they did achieve a notable climbing feat, it tended to go unrecorded.
“I think that has then had a knock-on effect over all these years," Elise continues, "of girls not seeing themselves represented. I think that's why there's such a huge gap. It's still the same today - when you look at the telly and adventurers, they're all guys. It's all about getting more women visible. There are a lot of women in this space today, but women have always been there."
Wortley’s adventures are aimed at doing exactly that. Beyond Alexandra David-Néel and Pilley, they have included tracing Nan Shepherd around the Cairngorms, climbing Mont Blanc in 1800s clothing, in the footsteps of Henriette d’Angeville, and following Freya Stark into the Valley of the Assassins in Iran.
“I was based in the Alborz Mountains for that. The Assassins are this very old sect who ruled the valley for hundred of years and defended it against the moguls,” Elise says. “Freya Stark was also an archaeologist, and she went off on this two-year adventure to find their castles and look into their lives. We stayed with families along the valley just as she did - they are the most wonderful, welcoming people. All of my expectations were smashed as soon as I got there."
You don’t have to climb a mountain with a huge backpack; just make sure women are in this space.
The research also found that 59% of women don’t feel empowered to explore, citing a lack of confidence as the main factor (with a fear of the unknown and health or physical limitations also playing a significant factor). Elise herself is open with the fact that she long suffered from anxiety which, earlier in her life, had prevented her from getting outside, travelling and accessing nature.
“I started off getting panic attacks,” Elise says, “but then it turned into something called General Anxiety Disorder, where you basically feel like you're having a panic attack all day long. I had that for months on end. There was a time when I would never have been able to do these things, and even if I'd gone for a little trip to the park, for example, that would have been a really big thing. I was in a completely different space back then, so I can understand how people could be there and then have a progression up to doing more adventurous stuff.”
Elise is an advocate for micro-adventures. “Even on Instagram these days, it’s always people on top of mountains and making everything look hardcore, but really, you can do anything. I think we need to show that other side a bit more - opening up and making it feel more accessible. You don’t have to climb a mountain with a huge backpack; just make sure women are in this space.”
Wortley herself has big plans for the future.
“There's a woman called Annie Londonderry, who was the first to cycle around the world. It's the 130th anniversary of her cycle this year, so I'd love to try a bit of that trip on an old bike. She just went in her dress and her corset, with one tiny little handbag on the front - off around the whole world in the 1890s.”
Elise won’t be running out of inspirational footsteps to follow in any time soon.
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