Elizabeth Main: The English pioneer in the Engadin
From mountaineering to ice skating with Giovanni Segantini and glacier hikes - Elizabeth Main’s photographic legacy shows the many facets of the English lady.
Elizabeth Main wrote history – including in the Engadin. The English photographer, writer and mountaineer (1861 - 1934) accomplished first ascents, including the first winter ascent of Piz Palü; brought all-female roped parties to the highest mountain peaks, and worked as a nurse in France during the First World War. She was a courageous, confident and down-to-earth English lady who never shied away from a challenge. But her achievements were not well received everywhere: Fellow local climbers did not like it that a woman was entering a male domain. They were also suspicious that the “waifish wench”, as she was referred to, was married to three men.