VINTAGE POSTCARD 1939
Pico Cristóbal Colón / Chunduake (5 ,775 m - 18, 947 ft)
Colombia
The mountain
Pico Cristóbal Colón / Chunduake (5,775 m) is the highest point of Colombia and the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, probably in front of its neighbor, the Simón Bolívar peak. Because of its equatorial position, it is the fifth highest peak in the world by its height.. It is located about 70 kilometers southeast of Santa Marta, 130 kilometers east of Barranquilla and 700 kilometers north of Bogota, while the border with Venezuela passes 100 kilometers east-southeast . The coasts of the Caribbean Sea are less than 45 kilometers to the north. The altitude of the summit is uncertain, between 5,7003, 5,7304 and 5,775 meters above sea level, very near but probably higher than that of Simón Bolívar peak at 670 meters to the southwest. It is home to an icefield that has been in decline for fifty years.
It is named in homage to Christopher Columbus but among the Arhuacos, the summit is called Chunduake. It is the only one that has an indigenous name in the sierra, the main summits being collectively identified as Chundua (the "mountains" or "dwelling of the dead"), the throne of the god Kakarua Viku.
The first attempt to ascend the Cristóbal Colón peak in 1936 resulted in the death of the mountaineer Hans Lötscher after a fall in a crevasse, while he was accompanied by his compatriot Willy Weber. According to the sources, they are emigrants of German, Swiss or Austrian origin.
In 1939 Walter Wood, Anderson Bakerwell, and E. Praolini succeeded by the eastern edge of the first ascent of the summit, on the occasion of a cartographic expedition organized by the American Society of Geography and conducted by Thomas D. Cabot, 6. The second ascent was made by the Swiss couple Frédéric and Dorly Marmillod in February 1943.
In January 1957, Piero Ghiglione made the first ascent of the south face, alone.
The Cristóbal Colón peak has been protected since 1964 in the Santa Marta Sierra Nevada National Park, which covers 3,830 square kilometers.