{{short description|American mountaineer (born 1935)}} '''Irene Beardsley''' (formerly '''Ortenburger''' and '''Miller'''; born 1935) is an American mountaineer, and along with Vera Komarkova, the first woman to climb Annapurna, the tenth highest mountain in the world.
== Early life == Beardsley was inspired to climb mountains after seeing the Teton Range during a family holiday as a child.<ref name="ba">{{Cite news|url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/14/bay-area-sent-two-women-on-first-climb-to-the-top-of-the-world-another-never-came-back/|title=Bay Area sent two women on first climb to the top of the world. Another never came back.|date=January 14, 2014|author=Bruce Newman |newspaper=Mercury News}}</ref>
Beardsley began climbing in 1953 after joining the Stanford Alpine Club. She describes herself as not a natural athlete, but nonetheless a keen climber who went on trips around Yosemite and the Tetons. In 1956, she married fellow climber Leigh Ortenburger. She majored in physics, graduating in 1957.<ref name="alp"/>
In 1965, Beardsley earned her PhD, as just the fourth woman to graduate with a physics PhD from Stanford.<ref name="alp"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt1199r6fn/entire_text/ |title=Guide to the Stanford Alpine Club Oral History Interviews SC1018 |author=Daniel Hartwig |publisher=Online Archive of California}}</ref>
== Climbing == Beardsley climbed extensively in the Tetons and Peru,<ref name="ba"/> including making the first ascent (1957) of ''Irene's Arete'', Disappointment Peak, in Grand Teton National Park.<ref name="stan"/>
She travelled to Nepal in 1961 with her husband, as he was invited to be a part of Edmund Hillary's Makalu expedition. Once she arrived she was forbidden by Hillary to set foot on the mountain, despite her climbing credentials.<ref name="bt">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1tkzfIh-rgAC&dq=irene+beardsley |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2005 |title=Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life |author=Arlene Blum|isbn=9780743258463 }}</ref> In 1965, along with Sue Swedlund, she made the first all-female ascent of the North Face of the Grand Teton.<ref name="stan">{{Cite web|url=https://library.stanford.edu/spc/exhibits/past-exhibits/no-guts-no-glory-history-stanford-alpine-club|title=No Guts, No Glory: A History of the Stanford Alpine Club|website=Stanford Libraries}}</ref><ref name="ba"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.climbing.com/people/teton-climbing-achievements-announced/|title=Teton Climbing Achievements Announced|first=Christian|last=Beckwith|website=Climbing Magazine}}</ref>
While working as a physicist at IBM, she was invited to be part of the American Women's Himalayan Expedition to Annapurna. At the time women were often rejected from major expeditions, and the all-female nature of this one was a rare opportunity. They raised money for the expedition by selling T-shirts with the slogan ''A Woman's Place is on Top''. After a month of climbing Beardsley and Komarkova became the first women to climb Annapurna.<ref name="alp">{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP16/ascent-beardsley|title=Irene's Arete |magazine=Alpinist |author=Irene Beardsley |date=1 July 2006}}</ref><ref name="bt"/>
== Notable climbs == *Mount Moran (1963); assorted first ascents in the area<ref>{{cite book|title=A Climber's Guide to the Teton Range |author=Leigh N. Ortenburger & Reynold G. Jackson |year=1996 |publisher=The Mountaineers |isbn=0-89886-480-1}}</ref> *Palcaraju (1964); second ascent<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/tom-frost-yosemite-and-international-icon-for-the-ages-dies-at-81/ |title=Tom Frost, Yosemite and International Icon for the Ages, Dies at 82 |publisher=Rock and Ice |author= Stephen Grossman |date=August 25, 2018}}</ref> *North Face of the Grand Teton (1965); first all-female ascent *Annapurna (1978); first American ascent; first female ascent
==See also== *Arlene Blum *American Women's Himalayan Expedition
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beardsley, Irene}} Category:Living people Category:1935 births Category:American female mountain climbers Category:20th-century American sportswomen