Extending what women were expected to attempt on Aoraki
1882–1935
Mountaineering
Alpine history
Writing
Australia
Emmeline Freda Du Faur was born at Croydon, Sydney, on 16 September 1882. As a young woman she explored the sandstone country near Ku-ring-gai Chase and taught herself to rock-climb. Photographs of the Southern Alps at the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch in 1906 inspired her to visit the Hermitage and begin working towards high alpine climbing.
Freda trained under Peter Graham, chief guide at the Hermitage, who taught her ropework and the techniques required for snow and ice. Before returning to New Zealand in 1910, she also completed three months of physical training with Muriel Cadogan at Sydney’s Dupain Institute of Physical Education. Freda’s independent income gave her access to travel, extended holidays and professional guides, opportunities unavailable to most women of her generation.
On 3 December 1910, Freda climbed Aoraki/Mount Cook with Peter Graham and his brother Alexander, known as Alec. She became the first recorded woman to reach the summit. The six-hour ascent was also the fastest achieved to that date. Her success rested on preparation, fitness, technical skill and the work of an experienced rope team, rather than determination alone.
The climb was only one part of four remarkable alpine seasons. Freda completed first ascents and difficult early ascents of several major peaks. In January 1913, she, Peter Graham and David “Darby” Thomson made the first grand traverse of Aoraki’s three peaks. They later completed the first traverse of Kakīroa/Mount Sefton.
Freda also had to negotiate rules that had little to do with mountain safety. On her first substantial climb, other guests at the Hermitage insisted that an unmarried woman should not spend a night alone with a male guide. The resulting chaperone was an inexperienced porter whom Freda had to hold on the rope when he slipped. She climbed in a below-the-knee skirt worn over knickerbockers and long puttees, balancing freedom of movement with contemporary demands for respectable female dress.
In 1915 she published The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs, recording the practical work, risks and pleasures of four seasons in the Southern Alps. Although the language of “conquest” reflects its period, her account preserves important evidence about women’s participation in early mountaineering and the skilled guides who climbed beside her.
Freda never settled permanently in New Zealand, but her strongest achievements were made in the Aoraki region. She died at Dee Why, Sydney, in September 1935, aged 52. Du Faur Peak bears her name, while Freda’s Rock remains beside the Hooker Valley Track. The track passes through the sacred Tōpuni of Aoraki, who is the most sacred of Ngāi Tahu ancestors. This is not simply a sporting landscape, but a place of enduring whakapapa, identity and cultural responsibility.
Impact: Freda Du Faur is significant to South Canterbury HerStory because her most important mountaineering achievements took place on Aoraki and surrounding peaks, making this region the landscape in which she challenged expectations of what women could attempt and achieve. She helped demonstrate that women could undertake the most technically and physically demanding alpine climbs. Her achievement did not remove the barriers women faced, but it made arguments about female incapacity harder to sustain. Her published account also left an unusually detailed record through which later climbers and historians could understand her training, decisions and alpine work.
Read more on this WuHoo Blog: More Than Petticoats on the Peaks
Main sources and links
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Emmeline Freda Du Faur
Supports her identity, training, climbing record, clothing, guides, writing and New Zealand significance.
NZHistory: First female ascent of Aoraki/Mt Cook
Supports the 3 December 1910 ascent, record time, training and social restrictions.
Australian Dictionary of Biography: Emmeline Freda Du Faur
Supports her Australian childhood, education, climbing record and later life.
Freda Du Faur, The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs
Her 1915 first-person account of four alpine seasons.
Department of Conservation: Hooker Valley Track
Confirms Freda’s Rock and explains the significance of the Tōpuni landscape.