Brede Arkless (née Boyle) (10 August 1939 – 18 March 2006) was a leading female climber and mountaineer, and was actively involved in the all-women's climbing movement. She was born in Manchester, England, of Dublin parents. In 1964 she married fellow mountaineer Geoff Arkless, and together they started a mountain school in Wales. She made several all-women trips to the greater ranges, while still being able to rear eight children. She also organised women-only climbing courses, together with the noted climber and feminist Jill Lawrence. She was only the second woman to qualify, in the 1960s, as a British Mountain Guide, and was the first woman to hold the badge of the UIAGM as an international mountain guide.[1] Increasingly involved in all-women climbing and guiding, she eventually separated from her husband, moved to New Zealand in September 1990 and became a New Zealand citizen in 1995. While in her fifties she guided a total of 22 ascents of Aoraki/Mount Cook.
In 1998, an expedition party of five including a 59-year-old Arkless succeeded in crossing the Garhwal region of the Indian Himalaya between the Hindu temples of Badrinath and Kedarnath, a feat that had only been accomplished once before, in 1934.[2] In 2000 Arkless tried to become the oldest woman to ascend Mount Everest but failed when she had to abandon her attempt at 8,500 m (28,000 ft) due to severe altitude sickness. The experience left her disillusioned: "Everest is full of non-climbers and rich people. Everest is all about summit fever and people who shouldn't be where they are. One guy said 'How many 8000m peaks have you climbed?' When I said 'One', he turned away."[3]
Arkless died of pancreatic cancer, aged 66. After being diagnosed Arkless rode her bicycle more than 150 miles over high mountain passes from her home to a hospital in Christchurch for exploratory surgery, which revealed that her illness was inoperable.[4]