Dorothy Pilley Richards

Dorothy Pilley Richards (16 September 1894 – 24 September 1986) was a prominent mountaineer. She attended Queenwood Ladies' College and went on a climbing tour with fellow student Bryher^[1] in Wales and around this time joined the Fell & Rock Climbing Club, later helping found the Pinnacle Club in 1921.

Born

Dorothy Eleanor Pilley

(1894-09-16)16 September 1894

Camberwell, South London, England

Died24 September 1986(1986-09-24) (aged 92)

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

OccupationsMountaineer, writer

NotableworkClimbing Days (1935)

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Dorothy Pilley Richards
Dorothy Pilley – Secretary of the British Women's Patriotic League, c. 1922
Born	Dorothy Eleanor Pilley (1894-09-16)16 September 1894 Camberwell, South London, England
Died	24 September 1986(1986-09-24) (aged 92) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Occupations	Mountaineer, writer
Notable work	Climbing Days (1935)
Spouse	I. A. Richards ​ ​ (m. 1926; died 1979)​

Close

In the 1920s, she climbed extensively in the Alps, Britain, and North America after her marriage to educator, literary critic and rhetorician, I.A. Richards.

In 1928, she made the celebrated first ascent of the north north west ridge of the Dent Blanche in the Swiss Alps, with Joseph Georges, Antoine Georges and her husband,^[2] which she described in her well-regarded memoir, Climbing Days (1935)^[3] – republished by Canongate Books in 2024.^[4]

Pilley's great-great-nephew Dan Richards has written a biography of her, published by Faber and Faber in 2016 and also titled Climbing Days.^[5][6]