Cycling Alaska to Argentina: The Peru Great Divide

I’ve been cycling from the top of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina for the past 18 months, so began the Peru Great Divide with equal parts fear and anticipation. It’s a 1,000-mile Andean marathon with countless passes over 16,000 ft in elevation.

Services faded toward nonexistence as the cold grew increasingly severe. Remote villages might have one tiendita and one comedor, otherwise you’d be lucky to pass through any given town on the same day as the vegetable truck. Atop each mountain waited torrential blizzards of horizontal snow and hail, with shards of ice collecting on my tent by morning.

Just beyond Oyon I reached the new highest pass of my life: +16,300ft [4,968m]. Locals here blockaded the road in protest against mining activity, so the peak had been subsequently abandoned. I’d prepared for the cold weather, but even after months across the Andes these extreme elevations devoured my strength. It took everything I had to haul my bike over the makeshift stone walls and continue down the other side.

Daylight cratered fast as I raced downhill each afternoon, but the colors up top were what struck me the most. Some peaks were sage green, some were the darkest shade of red wine, others a liquid type of orange, all ribboned with veils of ice and snow that hardly ever melt away.