Looking back along the west ridge of Uruashraju Norte

The west ridge of Uruashraju is very exposed. It's mixed, some rock and some snow, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's only rock in a couple of years. We didn't plan to follow the ridge, just cross it. We had scrambled onto the ridge from the north, but found that we couldn't easily descend directly on the south: it was steep rock with few holds. So we followed the gently rising ridge for a while, heading east, until the southern slopes were a bit less steep, and covered with snow. Very soft powder as a matter of fact. Easy to desend, but we knew it would be tiring on our return ... 19 July 2011.