Guiding in the Andes

In 1986 I was planning to take a group of middle schoolers climbing in Peru. Our plan was to spend time in the Pisco and Ishinca valleys. Unfortunately, three months before our trip was to leave the Sendero Luminoso spilled over the Andean continental divide and expanded their theater of operations into the Cordillera Blanca. We changed our itinerary and spent the summer climbing in Ecuador instead ... Imbabura, skiing on the flanks of Cayambe, Pichincha, Ruminahui, a failed attempt on Cotopaxi, and finally Tungurahua. As you can see from this recent photograph ... Conditions on Tungurahua have changed a bit!