Huaraz!

Following the breathtaking scenery on the canyon approach you would imagine we were prepared for sights of the Cordillera Blanca. We were not. Maybe it is the fact that outside of Ecuador, our eyes haven't felt snow in 5 months, or perhaps it is the bleak contrast of unblemished snow meeting the dusty desert below. Either way the mountains defy explanation, words are but a dusty mirror held up to the grandeur of such terrain.

Though Mt. Rainier holds a similar vertical relief as these Peruvian monsters, the comparisons cease abruptly. Where the tallest peak in Washington is a hulking rounded mass, owing to its volcanic heritage, the Andean peaks are beautifully sculpted and carved into dreamlike shapes. Razor sharp edges fall from towering summits, like giant sheets of white satin dropped from a passing deity. These are the mountains that will turn climbing from a casual hobby to an insatiable addiction. And here I stand, out of shape, thin on time and money, unable to follow such desires. As some cruel joke a Chilean climber approaches us desperate for a climbing partner for a challenging route up a nearby peak. Painful. Rest assured I'll be back.

Unfortunately there can be a terrible price for residing under such imposing peaks. Directly above the nearby town of Yungay towers the twin summits of Huascaran, which holds the title of the highest mountain in the western hemisphere requiring technical climbing. In May 1970 a 7.5 earthquake loosed a mudslide carrying 80 million tons of mud, snow and rock, leaving 20,000 dead beneath the rubble. The towns of Huaraz and Caras were also destroyed.