Lizzie le Blond, the pioneering Alpinist, rises again

Lizzie Le Blond was one of a kind. She shattered Victorian conventions not only by climbing mountains but by photographing them. Clodagh Finn reports on a documentary that puts the Irish woman back in the spotlight

Director Sophie Chaffaut during filming of her documentary 'The Ascent of Lizzie Le Blond'.

We might call it a dramatic mountain rescue. French film director Sophie Chaffaut has retraced the footsteps of pioneering Irish mountaineer Lizzie Le Blond and in doing so, reintroduced the life and work of this exceptional woman to an international audience.

It is inspiring and moving in equal measure to see how vividly The Ascent of Lizzie Le Blond, Chaffaut’s new documentary, reanimates the achievements of a norm-breaking Alpinist, photographer, and filmmaker born in Wicklow in 1860.