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On April 13, a group of climbers were in the middle of their International Mountain Rescue course in the Peruvian Andes when they got a real-life pop quiz.
The climbers were on Mount Vallunaraju, an 18,655-foot peak and popular guiding destination in Huascaran National Park near the city of Huaraz. Three of them were hanging in harnesses over a snow bank, simulating a rescue and waiting for their teammates to hoist them back up.
Suddenly, a 20-foot serac behind them broke off into three pieces, each sinking into an adjacent glacial lake. Then the snow bank began to collapse, too, right below the climbers’ feet.
“I felt real fear when [the serac] started to break,” wrote Javier Rivadeneira, one of the course participants, on his Instagram post. Rivadeneira was above the fray, holding a back-up line for his partner, who successfully pulled up his “fallen climber.”
His friend Jose Forero captured this video, throwing up a peace sign and selfie as truck-sized icebergs bobbed and sank behind him.
Luckily, the rescue drill succeeded. No one was hurt, and the group soon moved to steadier ground. The course, hosted by the Association of Mountain Guides from Peru (AGMP), included climbers from Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, and Switzerland.
“I’m grateful for the years of experience and what we learned in the course these past few days,” added Rivadeneira.
Ice calving is a natural process, but it’s worth noting that Peru hosts nearly 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, including over 700 glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca (“white belt”) of the Andes.
Vallunaraju’s glacier, in particular, is the subject of a 2025 International Mountain Conference study linking black carbon, caused by human pollution, to accelerated snowmelt.
Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.