Rolex and National Geographic Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition: Atop the Andes Mountains

Rolex and National Geographic 
Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition
Atop the Andes Mountains

With support from Rolex and the National Geographic Society, climate scientists and Explorers Baker Perry (whom Danny profiled two years ago in these pages) and Tom Matthews endured snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures to install a state-of-the-art weather station on the summit of one of Peru’s highest mountains. As well as providing a source of water for millions of people, the Vilcanota mountain range forms a key part of the complex water cycle of the wider Amazon River basin. 

Today, that system is under threat from a brutal combination of climate change and deforestation, but to accurately predict how it will respond to these challenges in the future, scientists must better understand the current weather in the high mountains. With data now flowing in from the weather station on the summit of Nevado Ausangate, they might just be able to do so.