Early years Straton was born in
Willsbridge, England in 1838. When she was eight years old she moved to
Kingston upon Hull and relocated again at the age of seventeen to
London in pursuit of a better education. Following the deaths of her parents and sisters, she inherited the Straton family fortune in her twenties, becoming financially independent with an income of roughly £4,000 per year.
Career Straton was introduced to climbing through her friend
Emmeline Lewis Lloyd, with whom she travelled throughout the
Alps and
Pyrenees on hiking and climbing expeditions in the 1860s–70s. In 1870 they became one of the first women to climb
Monte Viso and the following year did make the first ascent of Aiguille du Moine. In 1875 they made the first ascent of a peak on the
Aiguille de Triolet, which Charlet named Pointe Isabella. They climbed a new peak in the
Aiguilles Rouges in 1881, which they named Pointe de la Persévérance in honour of "the perseverance that they had shown before they had dared to confess their affection for one another". One of their sons, Robert, was killed in
World War I in 1915. Straton died in 1918 in
La Roche-sur-Foron,
Haute Savoie, and was buried in Argentière. When Straton and Charlet's grandchildren opened a hotel in Chamonix, they named it Pointe Isabelle in memory of Straton. ==References==