Black Diamond Global Athlete

CARLA PEREZ

Carla’s  father  introduced her  to the mountains  at the age of  4,  when he took her to the top of  a  14,000-foot  volcano near  their  home in Quito, Ecuador.  That trip inspired a  passion for  high places  and set the trajectory  of  her  life.  As  a  teenager  she started seriously  hiking and climbing at her  country. Carla’s  love of  the mountains took her  to the French  Alps,  where she studied geology  and got a  masters’  research degree  in  Solid  Earth  in  the  University Joseph  Fourier  at  Grenoble. But her passion for mountaineering push her to pursue a career as a mountain guide. Now she is a certified  member of  the Ecuadorian  Association of  Mountain Guides and is on her  way  to earning her  IFMGA  certification. Her  big-mountain accomplishments include summits  of  five 8000ers  without supplemental oxygen (Everest, K2, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Manaslu), first  women of  the Americas(North, Central and South) to climb and descend Everest and K2  without supplemental oxygen, and first women in the  world to climb both in the same year, the  south  face of Aconcagua and a  bunch  of new routes and first ascents around the world. Carla has become a role model for women and girls throughout South America and around the world. At home in Ecuador, she directs a  social project, Mas  Allá  De Una  Cima  (“Beyond the summit”), that helps  people  with mental disabilities  or  limited means to participate in outdoor activities  in the Ecuadorian  Andes.

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