What is the general attitude toward mountaineering in the Cordillera Blanca region of Peru?
The folks that live in Cordillera Blanca look favorably towards climbing as it brings a lot of income to donkey drivers and local taxis and hotels in Huaraz. The town and these villages really enjoy many of the climbers and trekkers and the region depends on this type of tourism. They are very glad things are improving in recent years because, from 1988 until 1994, tourism was down due to terrorism that plagued this region. Is there a lot of good first ascent potential down there? Yes, lots of potential, not only for extreme routes, but also for easy and intermediate rock climbing and mountaineering. Having worked throughout Peru, I have seen many ranges that need to be explored. We worked in an area east of Cusco and northwest of Lake Titicaca and the peaks were all granite spires with several hundred-meter ice faces and chutes, and maybe only five percent or less had been climbed. Access to a basecamp was only a half hour by taxi and the number of unclimbed peaks go on and on. Over t
