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The Lady and the Mountain Man:
Isabella Bird, Mountain Jim Nugent, and Their Unlikely Friendship
Neither Isabella nor Jim was so drained they could not appreciate the incredible sweeping views. Standing at the highest point in the park, they looked out over an unbroken expanse of pines and snow-slashed pinnacles and more. “There, far below, links of diamonds showed where the Grand River takes its rise to the mysterious Colorado…,” Isabella wrote describing the sight. “Nature, rioting in her grandest mood, exclaimed with voices of grandeur, solitude, sublimity, beauty, and infinity, ‘Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him?’”
Isabella and Jim had reached the summit so late their time spent admiring the view was abbreviated. The group needed to start back down the mountain before daylight faded. Downer and Rogers were anxious to get underway, and Isabella thought for a moment they would suggest going it alone. They had made a few comments about women being an encumbrance on such a journey. “A woman’s incompetence on rough mountainous trips detains the others and can even endanger lives,” she overheard Rogers say. Jim championed Isabella’s right to climb Longs Peak and assured the men that “if it were not to take the lady up, he would not have gone at all.”
Isabella noted in her memoirs the reason the young men on the venture were in a hurry to descend the mountain was that one of them was afraid long periods in the high altitude would lead to lung damage. She noted that respiration at 15,000 feet was painful, and they were all struggling with getting enough to drink. Before starting down the peak, each wrote their name and date on a piece of paper, placed it inside a tin, and tucked the tin snuggly in a crevice.
Descending the mountain was unnerving. Isabella scooted to the edge of the peak, dangled her feet in front of her, and searched the cracks in the rock for a place to set her foot. Jim had climbed down ahead of her, and, when she couldn’t find a crevice to use as a foothold, he allowed her to put her feet on his shoulders. His strong arms lifted her from steep rock formations and gently placed her on secure ledges below. Although Isabella was grateful for Jim’s help, she felt ashamed she required it. She wanted him to see her as courageous and strong, not needy and dependent. From what Rogers observed, Jim looked at Isabella with deep admiration and respect. The glances the two exchanged as Jim held her in his arms carrying her from one narrow, icy ledge to another was proof the two had grown to care for one another.
