CHAPTER II

Climbing Coropuna

The desert plateau above Chuquibamba is nearly 2500 feet higher than
the town, and it was nine o'clock on the morning of October 10th
before we got out of the valley. Thereafter Coropuna was always in
sight, and as we slowly approached it we studied it with care. The
plateau has an elevation of over 15,000 feet, yet the mountain stood
out conspicuously above it. Coropuna is really a range about twenty
miles long. Its gigantic massif was covered with snow fields from one
end to the other. So deep did the fresh snow lie that it was generally
impossible to see where snow fields ended and glaciers began. We could
see that of the five well-defined peaks the middle one was probably
the lowest. The two next highest are at the right, or eastern, end of
the massif. The culminating truncated dome at the western end, with its
smooth, uneroded sides, apparently belonged to a later volcanic period
than the rest of the mountain. It seemed to be the highest peak of
all. To reach it did not appear to be difficult. Rock-covered slopes
ran directly up to the snow. Snow fields, without many rock-falls,
appeared to culminate in a saddle at the base of the great snowy
dome. The eastern slope of the dome itself offered an unbroken,
if steep, path to the top. If we could once reach the snow line,
it looked as though, with the aid of ice-creepers or snowshoes,
we could climb the mountain without serious trouble.


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FIGURE