Panamerican Peaks Project

Looking back two and three years

June 1st, 2012

I’ll always remember fondly today’s date, June 1st, in the context of my Panamerican Peaks project. Two years ago, on June 1st, 2010, we stood on the summit of Nevado Pisco (5752m). It was the acclimatization climb for Huascaran (6768m), highest mountain of Peru. In this photo looking North one can see the range of the Cordillera Blanca with the famous Peruvian peaks Alpamayo (5957m, under ice-axe) and Artesonraju (5999m, behind my head).

On the summit of Nevado Pisco, Peru. Date: June 1st, 2010.

We went on to climb Huascaran a week after Pisco and reached its summit on June 7th. It was the second to last peak of this adventure, followed by Chimborazo later that June in Ecuador.

Three years ago, on June 1st, 2009, we reached the summit of the first peak in this adventure, Canada’s Mount Logan. It remains to this day one of the greatest highlights in my life.

On the summit of Mount Logan, Canada. Date: June 1st, 2009.

As I write this, the Canada West Mountain School is again on Mount Logan. I wish them well with this year’s expedition to the highest mountain in Canada.

Not all memories around this date are happy ones. On that same day, three years ago, as we reached Mount Logan’s summit, commercial flight Air France 447 fell out of the sky and plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew on board. It was the deadliest accident in the history of Air France and the worst accident in French aviation history.

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