Perú

 Tocllaraju, Ishinca Valley, Peru

My friend Danielle is all hot and bothered about doing a climb in Peru.  Specifically, she wants to climb in the Ishinca Valley, where I have done all of one trip.  Danielle is a hot-ass climber: daring, confident, and strong -- but without the standard climbers' baggage of ego.  In fact, she's self-deprecating and fun, someone who laughs at herself as hard or harder than anyone else can, always optimistic in the face of adversity, and her smile is freaky in how it takes over her face with its array of teeth.   In fact, her smile has been known to light small fires from 300 yards away.  In short, a really great person to have around on a high mountain, and honestly a really good person all around.  She doesn't bemoan adversity; she celebrates being alive, all the time, even when that means saying that yeah, We're Wet and Miserable, But Seriously I'm Glad I'm Not In Class.

I taught Danielle to climb.  Or, I should say, I provided the conditions, as a teacher, under which she had the chance to excel, which she did.  Something about her unbounded optimism resounded with me and she always poked me on a regular basis to go on a climb here or there, and so we've always kept in touch.  She came out to visit me a a couple of years ago, and then again last year with our mutual friend Darin, and both times we were blocked from a serious climb of Mt. Baker by conditions but we still had a great time together.

But so she wrote to me this week about climbing in Peru, and I was instantly ready to go.  What could be better than doing something that you love with good people?  Now we're in the planning stages.

I haven't been on a real mountain in three years now.

It's time.