Evelyn Fay Fuller (October 10, 1869 – May 27, 1958) was an American journalist, mountaineer and schoolteacher. In 1890 she became the first woman to reach the summit of

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

Biography

Fay Fuller was born in 1869 in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

to Ann E. and Edward N. Fuller. In 1882, when Fuller was 12 years old, her family relocated to

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, where she began to explore the wilderness. After graduating from high school, Fuller began teaching at the age of 15, eventually moving to work in

Yelm, Washington Yelm () is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. Its population was 10,617 at the 2020 census. At the beginning of the 21st century, Yelm was the 10th fastest growing city in the state in regard to population. History The wor ...

. While teaching in Yelm, her school was visited by

P. B. Van Trump Philemon Beecher Van Trump (known as P. B. Van Trump; December 18, 1838 – December 27, 1916) was an American pioneering mountaineer and writer who lived in the state of Washington. He is best known for the first documented ascent of Mount ...

, one of the first climbers to ascend

, with whom she became friends and who would inspire her to climb Rainier herself. Fuller made her first attempt on Rainier in 1887, reaching an elevation of approximately and setting a goal to someday "climb to the summit of the great peak". In 1890 she was invited by Van Trump to join a climbing party for a second attempt at climbing the mountain. On the afternoon of August 10, she and four teammates reached Columbia Crest, Rainier's highest summit, making her the first woman to have climbed the mountain. The next climbing party on the mountain found Fuller's hair pins on the route and joked that this proved "a woman really had made it to the summit". Fuller gave up teaching to become a journalist like her father, an editor of several Tacoma newspapers, with whom she found her first reporting job as the first female reporter for the '' Tacoma Ledger''. Following her successful ascent of Mount Rainier, she was given a column titled "Mountain Murmurs" in which she covered mountaineering social events near

Paradise, Washington Paradise is the name of an area at approximately on the south slope of Mount Rainier in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, United States. Southeast of Seattle, the area lies on the border of Pierce and Lewis counties and includes the Pa ...

and accounts by earlier climbers of Rainier. She also played a significant role in developing the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

climbing community: she helped to found the Washington Alpine Club in 1891, the Tacoma Alpine Club in 1893, and the

Mazamas The Mazamas () is a mountaineering organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1894. Promotion of mountaineering The Mazamas has been an important part of the climbing community in the Pacific Northwest of the United States ...

mountaineering club in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

in 1894. Fuller left Tacoma in 1900 to continue her career in journalism in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In New York, she met and married Fritz von Briesen, an attorney. They later moved to

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, where Fuller died in 1958 at the age of 88. Fay Peak in

Mount Rainier National Park Mount Rainier National Park is an American national park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state. The park was established on March 2, 1899, as the fourth national park in the United States, preservi ...

was named after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Fay 1869 births 1958 deaths American mountain climbers Female climbers Journalists from Washington (state) Sportspeople from Tacoma, Washington Writers from Tacoma, Washington American women journalists Schoolteachers from Washington (state) American women educators American sportswomen