"Women should not expose themselves in high mountains, to fatigue, to the strange dangers of their sex, which can very well be  scandalous! Shyness, fainting, are quite natural in women, traits that are often sweet and lovely. So then, they should let well alone this pointed iron bastion which, in their hands, is vain and ridiculous...", argued Étienne-Gabriel Arbanère in 1828 in his Painting of the French Pyrenees. Luckily, he was ignored.

Mujeres y montañas. Nacimiento del Pirineísmo femenino, winner of the novel competition run by publisher Desnivel, the ex aequo IV Premio Desnivel de Literatura de Montaña, Viajes y Aventura, offers a passionate testimony to the curiosity, determination and desire to push their limits of the first women climbers.

It is structured around seven fictional narratives set between 1792 and 1858, and convincingly reconstructs the experiences of these women in the Pyrenees. From Rosalie Ramond to Alice Prévost, varying personal and historical circumstances, some quite dramatic, have pushed these characters charged with emotions to set off to places that, in those days, had not been explored very much: the Pico de Entre los Puertos, Pic du Midi de Bigorre, Hourquette d'Ossoue, Brecha de Rolando, Monte Perdido, Vignemale and the Aneto.

An woman climber, one peak, several experiences...The result is a personal and intimate narrative which reveals the efforts of the author to reconstruct history and her thorough research. All the sensitivity and climbing experience of Marta Iturralde shines through to show us her vision of those historic climbs.