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Two women dispute the claim to have made the first female ascent of Mt Blanc. In 1808, an 18-year-old Chamonix maidservant, Marie Paradis, was dragged up to the summit, overcome with altitude sickness, and her climb was not counted as the first official ascent. Then in 1838, at age 44, Henrietta d'Angeville climbed to the top despite an attack of altitude sickness, the first climb by "any woman capable of remembering her impressions," as she put it. For the ascent she wore a large cloak, plaid trousers, a bonnet, veil, and boa. At the summit she wrote letters to her friends. She instructed her guides to lift her 4 feet (1.2 m) into the air so that she could reach a height greater than any male predecessor.
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