Meta Brevoort

Brevoort was born on November 8, 1825 into New York high society and spent her early years at Couvent Sacré Coeur, a Paris convent school.

During this time, she volunteered at a hospital and helped care for her sister's children, particularly her nephew, William Augustus Brevoort Coolidge, with whom she would share a lifelong bond.

After a doctor recommended mountain air for the sick boy, Brevoort traveled with William to the Bernese Oberland and Zermatt in 1865 and stayed.

[2] After a failed attempt to climb Eiger, Christian Almer gifted Coolidge a dog named Tschingel (1865–1879) as a consolation.

[3] In 1869, while descending from Monte Rosa, Meta Brevoort’s climbing party encountered representatives of the Alpine Club near Riffelberg.

Meta Brevoort’s two greatest alpine ambitions were to become the first woman to summit the Matterhorn and the first person to conquer the Meije in the Dauphiné.

When Meta Brevoort and her team attempted to climb La Meije, they chose to ascend Pic Central, reaching it on June 28, 1870.

Although Meta did not reach the highest point of La Meije, she was the first to establish a route to Pic Central, an impressive achievement in itself.

In 1876, she had her final opportunity for a first ascent, but, instead, stayed in the Oberland in order to give more money to her nephew, to support his efforts in the range.