John's report from Huaraz

Here is the report that I sent from Huaraz on Sunday, August 8:

A lot has been going on since we arrived here in Huaraz on Thursday morning and the situation still seems surreal. indeed none of us can still believe he is not with us anymore, and it is further difficult to comprehend because we are in this place that is so strange and beautiful to everyone. Here is a summary of events.

Friday:

We made a final decision on the location of what will be our largest gathering so far, to remember Tyler with all of his local friends and acquaintances. Charmaine, Charlie, Naresuan and I rode bikes up to a climber's lodge to get approval to visit with the lodge owners who were acquainted with Tyler. The bike ride was challenging for me, but Charmaine held in there and was an inspiration for me to keep pushing. Charlie sped up the hill with ease, making us all wonder what is in those Anderson genes that makes them so darn athletic. Our decision on the use of the lodge area was easy. It is a great spot.

A memorial will be built from Tyler's closest possessions, rocks and prayer flags, and many Huarizinos will gather to pay respect to Tyler's passing. This will occur on Sunday.

After our scouting of the location, we attended the local church ceremony back down in Huaraz. Tyler's buddies at Galaxia Adventures prepared a photo-layout of a few pictures of Tyler and a shot phrase of remembrance. This sat below the altar in the church, framed by flowers and a circle of candles. The ceremony ensued. It was in classic Peruvian style, as the minister spoke a few broken English words and the rest of the sermon was in Spanish. Throughout almost the whole ceremony, a loud festive band was playing just outside, and a huge party was going on, in celebration of some local holiday, of which there are many in this town. Fireworks were blasting off outside, while the Peruvian choir of 5 women inside was singing sad, slow funeral ballads. We all knew that Tyler would be smirking in his way that he does given the state of events. After the ceremony, we were all invited to bring a burning candle to the candelabra at the side of the church nave.

We re turned to our rooms at La Casa de Zarella, the guide hostal where I met Tyler at in 2004. This was tough for me because we spent so much time in that place. Zarella was there, and this was the first time I had met her. She is a vivacious, happy and smart woman, and she speaks great English. She has been extremely supportive and helpful throughout our stay and, since she was a friend of Tyler's, has been grieving with us too.

Saturday:

A few of us woke up at 1 am and headed out to the basecamp near where the accident occurred. Charmaine, Charlie, Brandon and I went into Huascaran National Park to visit the mountain. We were with Richard, a very good climbing guide friend of Tyler's who was pivotal in Tyler's decision to move to Huaraz way back in 2002. After a 3-hour drive through small towns on rough roads, we began hiking. This trip took us about 5 hours round trip from the trailhead. We began in the dark, and on our way in, the moon rose over the mountain, and then was followed by the sun shortly thereafter. The name of the mountain is Yanapaccha, a Quechua word meaning "black waterfall".

When we got to basecamp, Charlie and Richard roped up, hopped onto the glacier and headed up to the crevasse, while Brandon and I worked on feeling better at the altitude. We had a quick chat with Ted, the owner of Skyline Adventures and the lead man on the recovery team. We got some more details on the incident, and we all had a moment there with him.

After a while the three of us, Brandon, Chow and I ascended some rocks for a look at the scenery and at the mountain. Charmaine was helping to describe the locations of the climbing team and the events that took place on July 31st. That was tough. Meanwhile at the crevasse, Charlie had his moment. He left flowers, photos, cards, and a stuffed snoopy animal, apparently Tyler's favorite when he was little. He also spread some of Tylers ashes and a little "Something Special", the actual name of a scotch whiskey that Tyler had become fond of recently. The total experience of this visit was extremely cathartic for all of us.

We all made it back to Hauaraz in the afternoon and commenced napping, running more errands, stopping off at Tyler's place. We linked up with Charisse and Shari. They had gone to the Way Inn to look of the exact location of Tyler's permanent memorial.

At the Way Inn, on the ridge that we had previously located, Shari had been wandering around the ridge, looking for a "sign" to determine the exact spot. Charisse had her fingers crossed and the sign came when Shari was atop one rock and a hummingbird flew right up to her, hovered for a while and then flew off. Hummingbirds have a special meaning to Shari, and have been known to symbolize the connection of the Earth to the heavens, so, at that point the spot was marked.

After the day's activities, Brandon and I headed to Tylers, to meet up with Charlie and Shari, who had started to pack up his belongings. This was also extremely difficult. Many things found a home with Richard, and other items were decided upon with recognition that there were many other friends and family that may want a memento or items to help their grieving process. Brandon and I picked out some lucky carabiners and climbing gear from the stashes, and I built a package of the most personal, well-worn and distinctive items in the room. The idea was to create a box of tangibles that others could go through at any time in order to honor and remember this great guy we knew as Tyler. Included were his orange jacket, some old Bonsai notebooks, his Spanish English dictionary, his old map of the Cordillera Blanca, a coin collection, some pitons, a pair of climbing shoes, and his old army helmet.

The evening found us back at Naresuan's, Tylers good friend who operates the best Thai food place (probably) in all of Peru.

Sunday:

This was the day of Tyler's ceremony, to be held at the Way Inn, a climber's hostel, an extremely well-built compound, set alone on a ridge smack in the middle of Tyler's prime mountain biking terrain. We arrived with his memory package assembled the day before, and an inscribed chunk of granite that said "In memory of Tyler Anderson" and then gave the dates of his birth and death. We assembled his memorabilia on the large rock that Shari had chosen the day before, and added the rest of the stuff, flowers and moss picked from around the area. It was a beautiful little assembly of items that anyone would be fortunate to have put together. We were all pleased to tears.

About twenty or thirty people were then showed up for the ceremony, and Shari gave the eulogy. It was translated to Spanish by Carlos throughout, and this gave it an interesting touch. It had an air of humor that Tyler would appreciate, and essentially honored the people, culture, and mountains that Tyler had come to know so well. Shari referred to Huaraz and the Andes as Tyler's soulmate, and proposed that Tyler's life had really started when he moved to Huaraz. Then Charlie explained what was to happen next. A batch of popcorn was made at Tyler's house the day before, and was to be tossed by everyone in attendance. Tyler loves popcorn, and ate it religiously. So, I walked around with the bag of popcorn, and it was slowly emptied. Many of his friends began to eat their handful and this was comical. Charlie said a few words and grasped a large wad of Tyler's ashes and threw then to the wind while everyone else chucked their popcorn. Once that was done, a little music began and everyone was invited to walk up to the shrine and visit with Tyler and his stuff.

After the ceremony, we all retired back t the Way Inn to socialize in the sunny beautiful weather that has prevailed throughout this trip. A lot of beer was being drank, and there was general merriment in the air. Our crew said good bye after a while and got into the combi-van to head down the hill. We were just waiting for our last person, and we all noticed that a small brush fire burning down in the valley had increased in strength and was heading toward the area with a lot more force. Some folks were shouting and pointing, and so just as we were about to pull out, we stopped and hopped out of the van to rush over and see what was up.

As we rounded around to the back side of the Inn, on the ridge that we were just seated, we saw the fire coming up the valley towards the house. A hectic situation then broke out, with some donning shovels, and other donning buckets full of water to try to put out the wild brush fire. The fire was headed straight for the house, and the wind kept shifting back and forth, making it hard to stay in one place. There were about thirty people fighting this fire and protecting the house, connecting random hoses, running buckets of water, and hacking down lines of brush in order to defend the house. At one point the wind changed and engulfed the whole house and the posse of fighters with thick smoke, and we all had to run away. That part was pretty scary because we could not see each other. Then the wind changed back and we all ran back to the burn area to discover that Tyler's remembrance area was completely charred. The fire ensued and so did the fight. Charisse and Charmaine were running buckets of water up and down the hill with scarves around their faces, Charlie was linking up 2-inch pipes to douse the thatched roves of the houses. And I was running a hedger, trimming down brush grass in a line, with an eye to which trees i would chop down near the house in a last ditch effort to save the house if that was necessary.

It was an apocalyptic scene, and we were all worried that at some point the Inn would be taken. But after two hours, it was saved. We had a few more beers with the owners, and none of us could believe the total events of the day. Many of us were shaken, but it seemed that the locals here, Tyler's good friends, thought little of it, as though these kinds of things are normal. Normal people put down whatever they might be doing to deal with a fire because there is no fire department.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at Naresuan's, and speculating on the meaning of the fire, if any.

Fortunately, the contents of the memorial were removed before the fire came through, and after the chaos ended, Tyler's boots were returned to the rock, and were left sitting on top of it with a view of Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca.

And that completes the update for those three days.

John