- The beautiful Apu Veronica, considered a female mountain lord by indigenous people in the Peruvian Andes
Many mountains in the Andes are considered male by the local people, but a few are female, like Nevado Veronica.
She rises wide and conical over the Urubamba Valley, like a big-hipped mama towering over her children.
In the photo above, she's bathed in luscious drifts of snow that resemble swirls of soft-serve ice cream. I suspect the photo was taken a while ago or immediately after a heavy snowfall because Veronica has lost much of her snowcap in the last fifteen to twenty years, as a result of global warming. She's mainly brown now.
Veronica is my favorite mountain in the Andes.
---Barbara R. Drake
5 responses so far ↓
1 Alejandro // Sep 19, 2008 at 1:22 am
I love this mountain and her apu. It is not my favorite, which is Huaytapallana, but it’s up there. This is a lovely photo of Veronica, but as you mention, due to global warming, we may never see her the same way ever again. Thanks for another great post. (Enjoy your trip!)
2 Barb // Sep 22, 2008 at 11:36 am
Alejandro — Just checked out Huaytapallana at this link:
http://www.huaytapallana.com/
Your favorite apu is losing its ice cap, too, as the website’s front page describes. I will have to visit it (him?) before the ice disappears completely.
Just back from Ausangate — got a lot done there, met some amazingly resilient people, realized that I am a wimp when it comes to camping in sub-zero weather.
3 Veronica // Sep 29, 2009 at 4:12 pm
What a surprise when I was visiting the Andes and learned about this gorgeous mountain.
4 Barb // Sep 29, 2009 at 10:29 pm
And it has your name. I’d be honored to share the same name as this lovely mountain.
5 Jorge // Oct 14, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Bonita fotografia, tengo publicada una similar o identica en http://www.rockclimbing.com, que interesante.