In the early, 1900s, Barnicoat became one of the world's most prominent women mountain climbers, ascending peaks such as the Ailefroide, Mount Grindelwald, and the Schreckhorn. In 1905, she ascended the Ailefroide in the Dauphine Alps, France. In 1911 she ascended Switzerland's Grosser Schreckhorn. A peak in the Southern Alps was named in her honor by Julian Grande in 1923.