Vera Komarkova

Vera Komarkova (25 December 1942 - 25 May 2005) was a prominent Czech-American mountaineer and botanist. Credited as a pioneer of women's mountaineering, she was the first woman to summit Annapurna and Cho Oyu.

Early life Komarkova was born on the Christmas Day of 1942 in Písek and at the age of 16 she got to the Charles University in Prague to study botany, from which she eventually graduated. There, she discovered climbing and began making first ascents in the Tatras and other Carparthians.

Climbing Alaska In 1976 she climbed Denali and the next year she opened a new route on Mount Dickey. These exploits impressed Arlene Blum so she invited Komarkova to her Annapurna expedition in 1978.

Annapurna

The expedition was organised by Arlene Blum after she returned from an Everest expedition "marred by male chauvinist traits". Irene Miller recommended Komarkova immediately as they had ascended Mount Doonerak together and her Alaskan exploits were well known.

To raise funds for the 1978 expedition, the team sold T-shirts with the slogan "A woman's place is on top". The T-shirts sales raised $60,000, which was over 75% of the estimated costs of the expedition. They were also sponsored by ob tampons, which Komarkova noted was "the unexpected advantage of an all-women team".

Komarkova was an "enigmatic" personality on the mountain, reportedly unfazed by the avalanches and unimpressed by group discussions or collaborative leadership. Although other climbers like Blum and Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz were in favour of women-only summit attempts, she pushed to have Sherpas Mingma and Chewang join them. She was described by her colleague, Adolf Ceska, as "the greatest phytosociologist in the United States", but too far ahead of her time for mainstream recognition.

Komarkova used Braun-Blanquet methods to classify plants floristically, a method unpopular in the United States, that gained recognition in 2004.

In between her attempt on Dhaulagiri and ascent of Cho Oyu she gave birth to her first son, and her second after she returned. She raised them as a single mother in Europe. Popocatepetl

Mt. Blanc Group: Tour Ronde (normal route), Breithorn (N face)

Rocky Mountain National Park: Hallett Peak (Jackson-Johnson), Ypsilon Mountain (The Y Couloir), Hallett Peak (first Buttress (winter))

Eldorado Springs Canyon: The Naked Edge, and other rockclimbs

Rocky Mountain National Park: Hallett Peak (Love route); Notchtop Mountain

Winter Climbs in Colorado Rocky Mountains

Brooks Range, Alaska: Mount Doonerak, , Eeykaruk Mt.