RITACUBA BIANCO PAINTED BY RAFAEL TROYA

 

RAFAEL TROYA (1845-1920)

Ritacuba Bianco ( 5,410 m (17,750 ft) 

Colombia

In  Vista de la Cordillera Oriental desde Tiopullo, 1914, óleo/lienzo, 99 x 169 cm, Museo Nacional del Banco Central del Ecuador, Quito

The mountain
Ritacuba Bianco ( 5,410 m (17,750 ft) (in the background of the painting)  is the highest peak of Cordillera Oriental, in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. It's also named Ritak'uwa, an ancient name from the U'wa indigenous people that live in the lowlands of the National Park Sierra Nevada del Cocuy y Güicán, where the Ritacuba Blanco is located. The summit is accessible from the west via the town of El Cocuy, the village of Güicán and the hamlet of Las Cabañas. Because of global warming, its glacier is melting at very high rates, backing down 25 linear mts per year; same is happening at amazing speeds to all other snow-covered tropical mountains in Colombia.
 In 1950, Ritacuba Blanco's glacier extended down to 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) above sea level; in January 2007 its lowest point was at 4,800 metres (15,700 ft) above sea level. If this melting rate continues, the glacier is expected to disappear before 2025.

The painter
Rafael Troya (1845-1920) was an Ecuadorian painter born, the son of the painter Vicente Troya. Being a teenager, he is taken to the Colegio de la Compañia de Jesus in Quito, but he soon abandons the clerical career to dedicate himself to what was his true vocation: painting. With the painter Luis Cadena, he learns the technique of colors. In 1872, he definitely choose the landscape and accompanied Reis and Stübel on their study trips in Ecuador on Nature and Archeology. Troya becomes the portraitist of nature, painting compositions full of color and life. In 1890 he came back in the capital of Imbabureña, and decided to be completely dedicated to his art. There he made several masterpieces, such as the paintings on the Apostles, which today are admired in the Ibarra Cathedral, the Ibarra Foundation, preserved in the Hall of the city of Ibarra; Allegory of love, panoramic view of Ibarra; The earthquake of Imbabura, and several religious canvases that are conserved in some churches of Quito, in the church of Caranqui and in the Museum of the Central Bank of Quito. In his paintings, green and bluish tones predominate, characteristic of his native land. He painted a lot of mountains of the Andes and the most famous volcanoes of the Cordillera.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

PICO CRISTOBAL COLON / CHUNDUAKE IN VINTAGE POSTCARD

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.