translation

[Jason Berard]

As I was hiking up airline this weekend with friends, we hit the junction with Chemin de Dames trail and were trying to figure out the translation of that trail name. I'm hoping some member may be able to help us out.
thanks

 

[David Metsky]

Ladies Way (or Path)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_des_Dames

-dave-

 

[Jason Berard]

thanks Dave! I knew chemin de fer had something to do with railroads, and trains, and that fer is.....iron, I think, but I couldn't remember chemin.

well, now that that's solved, does anyone know how that trail got that name?

 

[pilgrim]

From Randolph Paths, 8th ed.:

"It was laid out in the 1920s by H. M. Dadourian and adopted by the RMC in 1937. No doubt Dadourian named the trail with a double entendre in mind; although the easiest (for the ladies) route, it is nonetheless fraught with diffficulty suggested by the associations of its French name. The original "Chemin des Dames" was a Roman road in Aisne, northern France, that in World War I was the site of bloody French attacks upon German fortifications and the subsequent mutiny of French troops in May, 1917."

 

[nartreb]

Also worth noting that the trail is in King (King's?) Ravine, and that the next lower card in the deck after "Roi" (king) is "dame" (lady). It's a safe bet (pun intended) that H.M.D., growing up in Turkish Armenia, learned his playing cards in French. (My theory does depend on the ravine being named by the 1920s.)

 

[bill bowden]

Chemin des Dames

King Ravine is named after Thomas Starr King(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Starr_King), a Unitarian Minister and conservationist of the mid-nineteenth century, he's also the source of the name for King's Canyon (he moved to San Francisco and passed away there) as well as Mount Starr King. so, yes the name was there in time to support your theory.

The name is nicely supported whatever interpretation since it is easier than the King Ravine Trail or Great Gully as exits from King Ravine and thus the 'ladies route" but also steep and strenuous enough to lead to mutiny similar to tha tof Genral Nivelle's unfortunate troops.

 

[DougPaul]

In some of the older British hiking literature, an easy route was often called "an easy day for the ladies". Perhaps not the specific reason for the name "Chemin des Dames", but consistent. Maybe derived from Chemin des Dames.

Doug

 

[Jason Berard]

thank you all for the info! I like all the double entendre.....besides, I can't imagine someone saying that trail is easy for anybody, and being serious,after looking down it from Durand ridge.