Marianne Schwankhart (born 2 September 1976) is a South African rock climber, specialising in big walls. In 2004 she became the first woman to scale the East face of the Central

Torres del Paine The Cordillera Paine is a mountain group in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. The cordillera is located north of Punta Arenas, and about south of the Chilean capital Santiago. It belongs to the Commune of Torres del Paine i ...

in Chilean

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

. In February 2005 she climbed the "Compressor" route on

Cerro Torre Cerro Torre is one of the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America. It is located in Argentina and Chile, west of Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén). The peak is the highest of a four mountain chain: the other peak ...

. On 21 August 2005 Schwankhart, with Peter Lazarus, James Pitman and Andreas Kiefer, ascended Trango Tower in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Biography

In 2007, she joined Pierre Carter, as project photographer, in his bid to paraglide off the summit of the highest mountain on each continent. Schwankhart and Carter flew in tandem in order for her to capture the full experience on film. In July 2010 they flew off Mount Elbrus in Russia, the highest mountain in Europe. In December of the same year they summitted Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest mountain in South America, but could not fly from the summit due to gale-force winds. In September 2011, they successfully flew off the summit of Kilimanjaro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwankhart, Marianne Afrikaner people South African mountain climbers South African rock climbers South African people of Dutch descent 1976 births Living people