The area has long been denuded of its snowy, white peaks.
Four men from Licapa, the village which lies further down the valley, don boiler suits and mix the paint from three simple and environmentally-friendly ingredients: lime, industrial egg white and water....
It is a laborious process but they have whitewashed two hectares in two weeks.
They plan is to paint the whole summit, then in due course, two other peaks totalling overall some 70 hectares.
The idea is that the white surface will reflect more light, thereby creating a cooler micro-climate, which might coax back some glacial ice. Similar ideas have been bandied about to cool cities.
As Ariel Schwartz points out, the local community is doing this for water, not just a love of glaciers. Climate change can disrupt how we stay hydrated, too, remember?
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