History and ethos
The Pinnacle Club – the UK’s only national rock-climbing club for women – was founded in 1921 by Emily (Pat) Kelly.
In the 1920s women were very much a minority in the outdoors, let alone climbing. Most climbing clubs were male only, and women tended to be viewed as secondary partners at best. The ethos of the club — to “foster the independent development of rock climbing amongst women and bring together those interested in the pursuit” — provided an opportunity for women to develop skills in the mountains and in life.
Climbing today is almost unrecognisable from when the club was founded, in terms of equipment, standards and numbers taking part, and there are more women climbing and competing at the highest levels.
Visit the Timeline for an overview of notable events.
The Pinnacle Club was officially inaugurated on March 26, 1921 at a meeting in the Pen y Gwryd Inn
It began with 43 members; Pat Kelly was Club Secretary and Eleanor Winthrop Young President. A letter was published in the Manchester Guardian soon afterwards, advertising the club’s existence and asking interested women to contact Pat Kelly. Tragically, Pat died the following year following an accident while descending easy ground on Tryfan in North Wales, but the club she founded lived on.
Pictured: the club’s 90th anniversary (l-r). Dorothy Russell, Hazel Jones, Lesley Shipway, Sue Hodgkinson, Valerie Partington, Claire Maw, Fred Reynolds, Helen Lear, Alison Stewart, Penny Clay, Anne Freund, Alison Cairns, Elspeth Howell, Thea Williams. Credit: Claire Maw Collection.
The original members were pioneers – all pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable for women in their time
Barriers could be as simple as clothing: a skirt was what a woman was expected to wear on the hill and solutions were creative.
“Besides, dear Pinnaclers, to escape condemnation I used to walk out of the village in a green tweed skirt over baggy knickerbockers well hidden till the foot of the climb. This outfit had been beautifully made by my mother.” — Dorothy Pilley – Forty Years Back, Pinnacle Club Journal no. 9, 1959-60.
Clothing has continued to evolve – from heavy tweeds in the 1920s to flamboyant, colourful lycra in the 1980s and back into the more practical 21st century.
Pictured: Dorothy Pilley, Glacier National Park, Montana, 1926. Credit: Alpine Club Library
The Pinnacle Club has always been organised around weekend ‘meets’
— arranged dates and venues where members could come together to climb; and getting to them could be nearly as adventurous as the climbing. Early venues included North Wales, the Lake District, Skye, the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District — all places where the club still runs meets today. In 1921, there were just nine meets in the calendar; in 2019 (before the Covid pandemic), there were 28.
From the start, members also regularly climbed abroad; prior to the Covid pandemic, members continued to travel throughout Europe and beyond, enjoying all types of climbing: sport, trad and mountaineering.
Pictured: the first Pinnacle Club meet, Idwal Slabs, 1921. L-R: Emily (Pat) Kelly, Dorothy Evans, Mrs O Johnson, Harriet Turner, B Lella Michaelson, Cicely Rathbone, Constance Stanley, Blanche Eden-Smith. Credit: GS Bower
Climbing was interrupted by World War II
We know that some people managed to spend time at the Emily Kelly hut between 1939 and 1945, having negotiated the barbed wire and soldiers at the power station but we don’t have many details of how Pinnacle members were involved with the war effort.
“During the war, in spite of many difficulties, we contrived to have at least one official meet each year, and we never missed holding an Annual Meeting, though most of our members, and especially the really active ones, were either in the Women's Services or doing other war work. Fortunately, our only war casualty was the loss of the club's entire financial records in the 1941 fire blitz on Manchester, and that, though inconvenient, was comparatively trifling.” — Club Notes, Pinnacle Club Journal no. 7, 1950
> Read the journal article (PDF, opens in a new window)
Pictured: Alicia Wilson, Evelyn Lowe, Cicely Wood, Berta Gough, Hester White. Believed to have been taken at the summit of Lliwedd by Geraldine Sladen on 9 April 1939 after an ascent of Central Gully.
By 1945, the Pinnacle Club had grown from the initial 43 members to almost 100
This growth continued through the following decades. The club today has over 170 members, the youngest in their 20s and the oldest in their 90s.
When it was first established, there were two types of membership — full membership, for experienced and competent lead climbers who were active members of the club, and associate membership, for new members and those lacking confidence or experience. Nowadays we operate a prospective membership list, and women who want to join the club have to attend a minimum of four meets and be proposed and seconded by two members who have been in the club for at least a year and can attest to their safe practice and skills.
> Learn more on the Getting Started in Climbing page
Pictured: 2019 introductory meet, Stanage, Peak District
There is no doubt the club benefited from the support of other established clubs
…both at the outset and up to the present day. Many of the early outings were supported by men-only clubs such as the Rucksack Club or the Climbers’ Club (CC), or the mixed Fell and Rock Climbing Club (FRCC), as well as the Alpine Club. Members of the Pinnacle Club often belonged to other clubs — the FRCC or the Ladies Alpine Club, and more recently the CC. The Pinnacle Club was involved in the foundation of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) in 1944.
Nowadays, we hold regular meets with our kindred clubs, borrow their huts, let them borrow ours, and work with them and the BMC for the benefit of the climbing community.
Pictured: Pinnacle Club and Climbers’ Club members on a joint meet at The Count House in Cornwall. Credit: Val Hennelly
Contrary to some assumptions, the Pinnacle Club isn’t an elitist club for hot-shots
The club’s ethos is about getting out there and climbing competently at your chosen grade, whether Difficult or Extreme. The most important thing is that women have the opportunity to climb together in a friendly and supportive social setting.
Whilst there are some very good climbers in the club, others of us stand no chance of being extraordinary climbers. Nevertheless, we still want to be able to climb as well as we can, while enjoying the mountains. It is much more engaging to lead at your own grade than to be ‘taken up a climb’. The confidence to push one’s grade often comes best from a near-equal pairing, especially if a jamming specialist is paired with someone who prefers to tiptoe up unprotected slabs.
Pictured: Val Hennelly demonstrates combined tactics in Sennen, Cornwall, assisted by a very polite member of HM Forces. Credit: Claire Maw