Category: South America

Tungurahua

Tungurahua Rising steeply above the lush valleys of central Ecuador, Tungurahua is one of the country’s most recognizable volcanoes. Its symmetrical cone towers more than three vertical kilometers above the valleys around Baños de Agua Santa, creating a dramatic transition from subtropical vegetation and cloud forest to páramo, barren volcanic slopes, and the summit crater. …

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Vinicunca

Vinicunca (Montaña de Siete Colores, Montaña de Colores, Rainbow Mountain) Striped in bands of red, rose, gold, green, white, and earthy brown, Vinicunca is one of the most visually unusual landscapes in the Andes. Better known internationally as Rainbow Mountain or the Mountain of Seven Colors, this high ridge in Peru’s Cusco Region has transformed …

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Cerro Risco Plateado

Cerro Risco Plateado Cerro Risco Plateado is a remote 4,999-meter (16,401-foot) stratovolcano rising in the Andes of Mendoza Province, Argentina. Positioned in the rugged Cordillera Principal near the Chilean border, the mountain combines exceptional topographic prominence with a complex volcanic history, a broad summit caldera, ancient lava flows, and terrain heavily modified by glaciers. Despite …

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Volcán Altar

Volcán Altar | El Altar Volcán Altar, usually called El Altar, is one of the most spectacular eroded volcanic massifs in the Ecuadorian Andes. Rising to approximately 5,319 meters (17,451 feet) at its highest summit, El Obispo, the mountain forms a dramatic semicircle of jagged, glacier-carved peaks surrounding the turquoise waters of Laguna Amarilla. Located …

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Quitaraju

Quitaraju Quitaraju is a formidable 6,036-meter (19,803-foot) mountain in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, rising immediately beside the much more famous Alpamayo in the spectacular Santa Cruz massif. Although its neighboring pyramid attracts most of the photographs, Quitaraju is actually higher and presents an impressive combination of steep glaciers, sharp snow ridges, technical ice climbing, and extraordinary …

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Cerro Marahuaca

Cerro Marahuaca Cerro Marahuaca is one of the most extraordinary table mountains of the Guiana Highlands, rising abruptly from the tropical forests of Venezuela’s remote Amazonas state. Reaching approximately 2,832 meters (9,291 feet), Marahuaca is a massive tepui composed of ancient sandstone cliffs, isolated summit plateaus, waterfalls, cloud forests, carnivorous plants, and species found nowhere …

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Sairecabur

Sairecabur Sairecabur is a massive high-altitude stratovolcano rising directly on the border between Chile and Bolivia in one of the driest and most dramatic parts of the Andes. Reaching approximately 5,971 meters (19,590 feet) in current Peakbagger topographic data, the mountain towers above the Puna de Atacama, surrounded by lava fields, salt basins, volcanic cones, …

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Cordón Mariano Moreno

Cordón Mariano Moreno Cordón Mariano Moreno is a remote, almost completely ice-covered mountain massif rising from the heart of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in southern Patagonia. Surrounded by hundreds of square kilometers of glacier ice, the range forms a remarkable north-south barrier between the immense Viedma Glacier system to the east and the Pío …

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