Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth "Betty" Stark or Rachel Stark (17 September 1923 – 2000) was a British speech therapist and mountaineer. She climbed the Jugal Himal during the first all-female expedition to the Himalayas in 1955. She became an expert in audiology and speech sciences and she was a professor at Purdue University.

Life Stark was born in Glasgow and she was known as Rachel when she was a girl. Her family moved to London, but at age 14 she was evacuated. Despite taking on the task of home worker from her unhealthy mother she managed to pass the London University entrance exam by correspondence. However, her family's finances prevented her from enjoying a university education.

Two of her aunts came to her rescue and they paid for their niece to train as a teacher. During teacher training she heard that further training was available in speech therapy. She started work as a primary school teacher but she used her evenings and weekends to study and to gain experience. She was qualified by the London College of Speech Therapists and gained experience in hospitals in Glasgow. She became a speech therapist working in schools.

The Ladies's Scottish Climbing Club had not been to the Himalayas. It was reported that the group studied a map of the mountain ranges and someone said that the area of the Langtang and the Jugal Himal was not well known. although this ignored the male sherpas who were a vital part of the expedition. The expedition was funded by Life magazine and Collins the publisher. although McNicol had to stay at base camp due to sickness. The Gyalgen or Gyalzen or Leonpo Gang East peak is on the border of the Nepalese Bagmati Province and China and it is 6151 m / 20,180 feet high.

In 1957, Stark and Jackson wrote the book Tents in the Clouds: the first women’s Himalayan expedition about the adventure.

She found that mountaineering became more technical. She wasn't interested in these changes and her interest in speech therapy grew as her interest in mountaineering diminished. She developed a technique for transcribing the early sounds of toddlers.

Private life She married twice.