Grant will allow local climber to scale South American peaks

Barbara Schwarz will be living her dream for the next 10 years, thanks to some help from the American Alpine Club.

Every July for the next decade, Schwarz, of Kalispell, will tackle several mountains in Peru until she has scaled nearly every peak in the Cordillera Blanca (“White Range”) of the Andes.

“I climbed a peak in Peru and met a Colorado mountain guide named Brad Johnson who had published a book about the 34 classic climbs of the Cordillera Blanca,” she said. “I thought, why don’t I tackle this task? Why don’t I try to complete it?”

Schwarz, 52, was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a British father and Swiss mother. She moved when she was just 3 to Basel, Switzerland, and speaks English with a Swiss accent.

It was in Basel where she found her passion for conquering mountains.

“I was introduced to climbing through my ski coach,” she said. “He was also a mountain guide and took us climbing. He took us on glacier trail tours. That’s how we grew up out there, doing things in the wild.”

Her passion for climbing has taken her to Alaska, Scotland and Glacier National Park. After college she spent time in Nepal. Only a few days ago did she receive confirmation that friends of hers who were scaling Mount Everest at the time of the April 25 Nepalese earthquake had survived the natural disaster.

But more than anywhere else, Peru is the place that called to her.

That’s why she submitted an application to the American Alpine Club, a nonprofit climbing organization that offers around $100,000 in grants each year toward climbing, conservation and research grants to fund adventurers.

Grants range from $200 to $1,000 and must “demonstrate a progression in skills and experience and outline an obtainable yet personally difficult goal.”

Schwarz will use the money to tackle the remainder of the 34 peaks in the Cordillera Blanca. She has three peaks on her agenda for this July — the Alpamayo, the Ranrapallqa and the Wamashrahu — all mountains that peak at more than 17,000 feet. The Ranrapallqa is 20,217 feet high, and is the ninth highest peak in the Cordillera Blanca.

But the high point of her trip will be scaling the Alpamayo, named one of most beautiful mountains in the world.

“It’s the big, best-known peak there,” Schwarz said. “There are peaks in the range that are less technical, so I might be able to do four of them in a different year.”

She will fly to Lima, the capital of Peru, with one guide before traveling to Huaraz, the capital of the state of Ancash. Ancash has many of the Cordillera Blanca peaks within its borders.

“We spend a few days climbing in Huaraz, which is at 10,000 feet, to get acclimated,” Schwarz said. “Then we take buses to the start of the trails where we begin the climb.”

Alpamayo will require a two-day hike just to get to base camp, and mules will come along to carry supplies. Schwarz typically only takes one person with her when climbing. She prefers it that way.

“My passion for climbing is really the remoteness, the solitude,” she said. “On mountains like Rainier it gets extremely busy. It turns into a highway. There is nothing wrong with mountains like Rainier, but I prefer the solitude.”

She has scaled Mount Rainier, in Washington, but did so in the winter with far fewer climbers. Most of her training for Peru is in the Flathead Valley, where she climbs the Toni Matt trail on Big Mountain twice a week. Avalanche Lake and Garden Wall trails are two of her favorites in Glacier National Park.

Her employer, Replay Sports, has been very accommodating, she noted.

“I’m lucky they allow me to take my time off in July to go on this trip,” Schwarz said. “And they let me come in at 11 a.m. so I can get a good workout in the morning.”

But even though the American Alpine Club is chipping in for adventure, it does expect Schwarz’s thorough documentation of her trip, including planning, photographs and returning.

“I submit a climbing report and start with a brief journal of my training regimen,” she said. “They want the full experience, and might call me out to meetings around the country to give a presentation.”

Schwarz has a blog, www.BarbaraSchwarzMT.com where she will update her journey periodically.

While Schwarz does have someone special in her life, she said that person understands Schwarz is as safe as she can be on these dangerous treks.

“They know that I’m surrounded by good people,” she said. “And we know or feel when to back off. Bad weather is a serious concern so you have to be aware. You have to stay healthy and make smart decisions.”

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.