In June and July 2011, the American Alpine Club is spearheading an environmental mountaineering expedition to Peru’s highest mountain range. The Cordillera Blanca contains the highest concentration of mountains higher than 6,000 meters (19,685 ft.) in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the highest mountains in the Tropics.
Section mountaineers and other AAC mountaineering scientists will be spending four weeks in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, where the group will team with local climbers. The team will collect valuable environmental samples from elevations too high and remote for most scientists to be able to visit. The data collected by members will assist local land managers and scientists to determine the environmental impacts of local and global air pollution and global climate-change impacts on the Andes Mountains.
Due to the ever-increasing global impacts on alpine environments, The American Alpine Club has become more proactive in its conservation efforts in alpine areas across the globe. The AAC currently is developing an air-pollution-impact environmental monitoring program that can be performed by mountaineers on high peaks. This trip to the Cordillera Blanca is the first of its kind: a mountaineering expedition with the purpose of assisting the local people in monitoring the health of their fragile, important, and beautiful alpine environment.
That the AAC and local scientists and climbers work as partners to maintain the pristine nature of their mountainous alpine environment in which they live and rely on. To use the latest and most cost-effective methods to monitor and document any and all environmental impacts on these environments. To work as an advocate for local land managers in documenting and maintaining their high alpine environments. And to discover solutions to reduce impacts on the ecosystems and populations that depend on these environments.
You can support this program along with Adventures Within Reach! Further information is available at the American Alpine Club website at www.americanalpineclub.org and click on the “Cordillera Blanca Environmental Expedition 2011” (near the bottom of the page under “Protect”. To donate, click on the DONATE button on the CBEE2011 page and fill in the form. You will receive a tax receipt, acknowledging your donation. The American Alpine Club is a 501c3 organization.
If your destination is Peru and you want an area less traveled…away from the crowds at Machu Picchu…you will want to go to Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca! Check out these tours and treks!
Photos courtesy of Frank Nederhand, AAC Peru environmental expedition director.
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