Pavla Above the Abyss

grown-ups

Pavla Jesih (1901–1976) was born into a rich butcher’s family. At birth, fairies have endowed her with an entrepreneurial spirit, a curious heart and a desire for the unknown. It was in the mountains where she could feel her independence and a shift away from the family economy. Throughout, she lived and acted as a self-made woman and an indomitable figure. Before World War One, she and Mira Marko Debeljak were the first and only ladies of Slovenian and even European alpinism. In the company of her male colleagues (Miha Potočnik, Danilo Martelanc, Stanko Tominšek and Joža Čop), Jesih was the first ascensionist on a number of routes in Slovenian mountains, mainly as a lead climber of the rope party. Her mountaineering activity was cut short in 1933 by a serious accident on Velika Mojstrovka. So, she focused on cinematography. She developed a network of cinema theatres in Celje, Ptuj and Ljubljana and before the start of World War Two, she owned the famous Ljubljana theatre, called cinema Matic, housed in the building of the Slovenian Philharmonic, as well as cinemas in Celje and Ptuj. She led a frugal life, spending money only to feed the pigeons in Ljubljana’s Stari trg and to buy cigarettes. She rejected any mountaineering awards. Her last wish was that her ashes be scattered across the wall of the mountain Špik but it never came true.

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