What Fanny Bullock Workman Taught Us About Courage, Money, and Marriage
“When, later, a woman occupies her acknowledged position as an individual worker in all fields… no such emphasis of her work will be needed; but that day has not fully arrived, and at present it behooves women… to put what they do, at least, on record.”
— Fanny Bullock Workman
My interview with Jenn Drummond got me thinking about other women who have been irresistibly drawn to the mountains. I wanted to learn about a woman who not only climbed high—but changed what society believed women could do.
That search led me to Fanny Bullock Workman, a mountaineer, cyclist, author, and orator who held the women’s altitude record for 28 years. Like Jenn, Fanny loved defying odds, living her own reality, and—importantly—looking unapologetically confident while doing it.
In 1906, Fanny climbed Pinnacle Peak (22,810 feet) in the Karakoram Range, setting a women’s altitude record that stood until 1934. When another climber, Annie Smith Peck, challenged the record by claiming a higher summit in Peru, Fanny didn’t argue—she paid $13,000 (a staggering sum at the time) for a professional survey to prove her altitude measurement. And she won.
Competitive? Absolutely. But also deeply committed to accuracy, documentation, and being taken seriously.
This episode—and this article—is about courage. Not reckless courage. Intentional courage. The kind that asks:
What would my life look like if I took myself seriously?
Privilege, Money, and Creating a Life That Allows Adventure
Fanny Bullock Workman was born in 1859 into a wealthy, patrician New England family whose lineage traced back to the Pilgrims. Her father became governor of Massachusetts and was openly opposed to slavery. In her household, equality was not just discussed—it was modeled.
Fanny grew up with access to books, education, time, and money. Not everyone has these resources, and equality does not mean life is fair. Life isn’t fair. Some things cannot be changed—where we were born, our bodies, our families, our early experiences.
But Fanny teaches an essential principle: you are not judged on what you are given, but on what you do with it.
Even people with very little still have choices—about mindset, effort, vision, and movement toward something better. You always start where you are. One step. Then another.
This philosophy echoes Ramit Sethi’s idea from I Will Teach You to Be Rich:
“Your rich life isn’t about deprivation—it’s about spending intentionally on what matters most.”
For Fanny, what mattered was exploration, learning, and physical challenge.
Getting your financial life in order isn’t shallow—it’s strategic. Money buys options. Options buy freedom.
Equality in Marriage and Redefining Womanhood
Fanny’s marriage to William Hunter Workman was radical not because it was romantic—but because it was equal.
They climbed together. They bicycled together. They wrote books together. They planned expeditions together.
Fanny was not “helping” her husband. She was co-leading.
At a time when women were expected to stay home, Fanny essentially said: No. I think I’ll go to the Alps.
She climbed Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and Jungfrau wearing skirts, leather boots, and rudimentary crampons, carrying an ice axe tied around her waist. She rejected the idea—common at the time—that women were physically or mentally inferior.
She once wrote:
“The average woman has never been taught that she has the same physical resources as man.”
Her philosophy aligns beautifully with Annie Smith Peck’s words:
“Don’t call me a woman mountain climber. Call me a mountain climber and let it go at that.”
Descriptions are fine. Definitions are dangerous.
As Oprah Winfrey once said:
“I’m black, I don’t feel burdened by it… It’s part of who I am. It does not define me.”
—Oprah Winfrey
When my three-year-old son lived in Australia, his soccer coach asked where he was from. He thought for a moment and replied, “Earth.” I love that answer.
I want Earth to succeed—and that means seeing each other as equals.
Grief, Motherhood, and Choosing a Bigger Life Anyway
By traditional standards, Fanny was not considered a “good” mother. She hired governesses. She traveled without her children. She did not pretend that domestic life fulfilled her.
She also experienced deep loss. Her young son, Siegfried, died of influenza at three and a half years old.
Her grief was real—but she did not stay there.
Rather than letting loss define her entire existence, she continued to live expansively. This does not mean she loved her children less. It means she refused to erase herself.
This is an important message for modern women:
You can love deeply and still want more.
Cycling Across the World: Movement as Recovery and Identity
When safety bicycles with rubber tires arrived in Europe in the 1890s, Fanny and Hunter bought two—and everything changed.
Fanny wrote in Outing Magazine that cycling helped her recover after childbirth and restored her sense of independence. She encouraged women to take up cycling, calling it a tool of physical and emotional liberation.
The Workmans bicycled:
Across Europe
Through Algeria
Across Spain
And eventually 14,000 miles through India
They sometimes traveled 75 miles per day on muddy roads, with outdated maps, unreliable lodging, and no safety net.
Movement became Fanny’s medicine. And modern science agrees: consistent movement improves physical, emotional, social, and mental resilience.
Also, remember that people are rarely motivated by nagging.
They are motivated by example and love.
Altitude Sickness: Courage Requires Knowledge
If climbing a mountain is on your bucket list, it helps to understand altitude.
Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) occurs because there is less oxygen at high elevations. Symptoms can include:
Headache
Nausea
Fatigue
Dizziness
Trouble sleeping
Severe forms include:
HAPE (Pulmonary Edema): shortness of breath, coughing, blue lips
HACE (Cerebral Edema): confusion, loss of coordination, hallucinations
Fanny believed documentation mattered—especially for women.
She once wrote:
“Women must put what they do on record.”
She photographed glaciers, recorded temperatures and altitudes, mapped unknown regions, and published eight booksunder her own name at a time when most women hid behind initials or pseudonyms.
She was:
A founder of the American Alpine Club
A member of major European alpine societies
The second woman to address the Royal Geographical Society
The first American woman to lecture at the Sorbonne
Her life is a powerful argument for journaling your own.
Ways to document your life:
A notebook or stream‑of‑consciousness journal
A gratitude list (three specific things daily)
The iPhone Journal app with photos or voice notes
Photos alone—snapshots are memory anchors
A Sendy Journal: write down the things that scared you—but you did anyway
You don’t need to climb the Himalayas. You just need to notice your life.
The Courage to Live Undefined
Fanny Bullock Workman did not want to be remembered as a woman explorer. She wanted to be remembered as an explorer.
Her life asks us:
Where am I playing small?
Where am I letting labels define me?
What would my life look like if I took myself seriously?
Courage isn’t loud. It’s consistent. It’s documented. And it’s available to you.
If you enjoyed this bonus episode of the Sendy Mom Podcast, please share it, rate and review the show, and consider joining the Sendy Circle. Your support helps more women realize that they are normal, it’s not too late, and they are courageous enough to build the life they want.
📍 Cycling / Travel Writing Their first major travel book, documenting long-distance bicycle touring across Europe. This book helped establish them as serious travel writers and chroniclers of modern mobility.
2. Sketches Awheel in Modern Iberia (1897)
📍 Spain | Cycling Adventure Based on their 2,800-mile cycling journey across Spain, this book blends cultural observation, social critique, and endurance travel—especially notable for Fanny’s voice as a female cyclist.
3. Through Town and Jungle: Fourteen Thousand Miles Awheel Among the Temples and People of the Indian Plain (1904)
📍 India | Cycling + Overland Travel One of their most ambitious works, documenting 14,000 miles of cycling through India, with extensive photography and ethnographic detail. This journey ultimately led them toward Himalayan mountaineering.
4. In the Ice World of Himalaya: Among the Peaks and Passes of Ladakh, Nubra, Suru, and Baltistan (1900)
📍 Himalayas | Early Mountaineering Their first Himalayan expedition book. Combines exploration narrative, glacier study, altitude observations, and early mountain photography.
5. Ice-Bound Heights of the Mustagh (1908)
📍 Karakoram | High-Altitude Exploration A detailed account of two seasons of exploration in Baltistan, including dangerous glacier crossings and altitude records. Considered one of their most serious scientific works.
6. Peaks and Glaciers of Nun Kun (1909)
📍 Nun Kun Massif | Scientific Mountaineering Focuses on the Nun Kun mountain group in the Himalayas. Includes careful mapping, measurements, and glacier studies—part of their effort to be taken seriously by geographical societies.
7. The Call of the Snowy Hispar (1910)
📍 Hispar Glacier | Exploration & Mapping Documents their traverse of the Hispar Glacier, one of the longest non-polar glaciers in the world. Combines dramatic narrative with rigorous cartography.
8. Two Summers in the Ice-Wilds of Eastern Karakoram (1917)
📍 Eastern Karakoram | Final Expeditions Their last major expedition book, covering exploration near the Siachen Glacier and Indira Col. Represents the culmination of their mountaineering and scientific careers.
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