VFYW: "The Jewel Of The Himalaya"

For contest #371, we travel to one of the most awe-inspiring tourist spots in the world.

(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)

From our wine geek in San Francisco:

I suspect you will get far more correct answers this week than last week. I was one of the “crestfallen” — so crestfallen that I didn’t even send in a guess. I got as far as Durango. My guess had nothing to do with the terrain, but rather with what I thought you might be up to: I figured the photo must be facing away from some cool skiing location that you liked, so I settled on Durango because the Purgatory ski resort is there. And, heck, purgatory just sounds right for last week. Go figure.

Among the many crestfallen was the CO/NJ super-sleuth:

Last week’s contest was a tough one to swallow, because it was in my home state of Colorado. I know the town, of course, but not quite as well as some other parts of the state, so perhaps this is why I did not go poking around the San Luis Valley. I was tantalizingly close, since I spend a fair bit of time near Buena Vista, in the Arkansas River valley, just to the north, so I searched there quite a bit for a match. In fact, I was so close that those mountains in the VFYW actually drain into that valley.

I always try to learn from my failures. This time, it was a lesson in macro-geography. Giuseppe was especially helpful in laying out his VFYW approach. I usually focus on the micro-features, but also bigger items such as a building or geologic feature. This time, as Giuseppe explained, the key was vast topography. I suspected Colorado from the outset, so if I had merely taken a survey of matching valleys and ranges in Colorado, I think I could have gotten this. In any case, I shall add this tool to my armamentarium and, hopefully, become a better sleuth for it.

From our super-sleuth in Southport:

After reading last week’s VFYW results, the old line from Wayne’s World comes to mind.

How can anyone, let alone eight sleuths, have identified the correct view? I took one look at that window and said, “Not gonna happen.” It’s very inspiring how tenacious some of the readers are. Team Bellevue’s detailed search process was amazing. I guess I have to try harder, or maybe form a team.

Looking to the latest view of snow-capped mountains, the super-sleuth in DC writes, “After being stumped last week, I was relieved to see that you made this week’s contest so much easier.” Don’t tell that to this sleuth:

No doubt the mountains in the background are the biggest hint. At first the giant peak on the right resembles the Matterhorn, but of course that doesn’t jibe with the palm trees, roof-top water towers, and favela-like construction in the foreground. In fact the foreground just screams Latin America, so I must be looking at the Andes in the background. A few Google searches makes me suspect I’m looking at Artesonraju in the background — part of the Cordillera Blanca in Peru. Per Google Maps there are scant few cities within range of the Cordillera Blanca to enjoy such a spectacular view, so it seems Huaraz is the only option.

From another Peru guesser:

It’s been a crazy year so far. I kicked myself when I missed the Indianapolis contest, since we lived there for 14 years. I have lots of great stories about Indy, but my favorite was being on the board of the award-winning Indianapolis International Airport. Their secret sauce is that every employee is also a customer service agent, especially the custodians. If you were to go anywhere in the airport (including the bathrooms) and look lost for 30 seconds or less, someone will come up to you and ask if they can help you! No wonder that they have been named best airport in North America for 10 out of the last 11 years.

This week, the village feels like South America, so I went with that. I think the snow-covered mountain is Alpamayo Peak. I didn’t have the time to search for the correct view or the correct window, but there’s a tour to climb the peak that centers around Huaraz, Peru, so that’s my guess.

A micro entry: “San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic — maybe?” Another:

Best I can do is that we’re looking down on the (somewhat modest) courtyard garden outside of Enver Hoxha’s house in Tirana, Albania. We’re likely thousands of miles away, but it’s my best guess.

3544 miles away, to be precise. Our sleuth in Bend gets to the right continent:

I see tropical-looking Asia plus big mountains. Could be India or China, but looks more like China. Yunnan is geographically sort of Southeast Asia meets the Himalayas, so it seems about right. Google shows the Meili snow mountains there that look like a possible match, so I’m going with Yunnan. 

Another gets closer:

Thimphu, Bhutan? Just a guess. Looks like Asia south of the Himalayas. And I love the name Thimphu.

I love the name Chini:

He adds, “Oh but for the clear skies this one could have been challenging, but with one of the world’s most iconic mountains in the background, it was a mere Friday afternoon stroll ... ”

Another sleuth tripped — on the tallest mountain in the world: