Claudine van der Straten Ponthoz

Claudine van der Straten-Ponthoz was a pioneering Belgian-French mountaineer, who died on October 2, 1959 while taking part in a women-only expedition to climb up 26,867-foot Mount Cho Oyu. She and the leader of the expedition, Mme Claude Kogan, and two Sherpa porters perished in an avalanche. Dorothea Gravina then took charge of the expedition.

Van der Straten-Ponthoz was a former skiing star and the daughter of a Belgian count.