Emily Caroline "Lily" Bristow (1864[1] – 5 August 1935) was an English mountaineer who made numerous ascents in the Swiss Alps with Albert F. Mummery in the 1890s.
[2] She made her first significant mountain ascent in 1892 when she climbed the Aiguille des Grands Charmoz in the Mont Blanc massif with Albert F. Mummery and his wife Mary.
[3] Bristow's guideless ascent of the Grépon inspired Mummery to write: "All mountains appear doomed to pass through three stages: An inaccessible peak, the hardest climb in the Alps, an easy day for a lady.
"[3] It was noted that Bristow caused scandal amongst her acquaintances by choosing to share tents with men.
[6][7] Elisa Kay Sparks has speculated that Lily Briscoe, a character in Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse, was named after Bristow.