Woman of the Mountains

Gillian Jackson on Malte Brun, Southern Alps, 1948

Gillian Jackson rummages through boxfuls of gear she used when she began climbing mountains in 1948 at the age of 17. 'We had no helmets and precious little safety gear then' she says, 'and girls weren't supposed to scale peaks in those days, they could become a burden for the men'.

There were no boots made for women climbers and Gillian had to wear schoolboy's boots which caused blisters and lost toenails.

Food was equally low tech with no fancy dried meals: dried lumpy milk, porridge and loads of dried apricots and rice. Light-weight materials were non-existent: not counting her food, Gillian carried over 30 kilos of gear up and down the steep slopes of the Southern Alps.

Jack Perkins chats to Gillian at her home in Collingwood and finds that, at the age of 80, she still climbs and tramps around Golden Bay.