Huayhuash Trek, Peru

After a year of planning, Brooke, Jim, and I headed out on a 10-day backpacking trip through the Huayhuash mountains in Peru. Our goal was to do the Huayhuash circuit plus several high alpine side trips.

We had expected to see no one else doing the route without a guide. After all, only crazy people carry all their own gear on a 10 day trip. But we actually found more people doing the trip by themselves versus using a guide and mules. It definitely gives you more flexibility. For example, we had planned on a 9 day trip but quickly realized we needed one more day of hiking to do everything we wanted. And with Google Maps, the GPS can show you the exact route to take. I can not imagine doing this trip without a GPS. We carried two.

This was our original hiking / camping plan.

Every day included hiking over a mountain pass, typically 16,000 feet, and camping in the designated campgrounds around 14,000 feet. Brooke did a  fabulous job of creating an itinerary that had us fully acclimated before we began the hike. Even with that, Jim and I could both feel the altitude once we got over 15,000 feet.

We booked a private shuttle to take us from Huaraz to the typical starting camp of Quartelhuain. I thought the camps were in towns but they were actually just nice flat spots with a bathroom.

The trail started with a grueling 2,000 foot climb. We thought this would be the exception but after a few days realized this was the norm. Starting every day with a brutal up hill climb.

Once we had reached our first pass and descended into the high alpine terrain, we were treated to herds of sheep with their newborn lambs.

Every day we hiked through either herds of sheep or cows. Not sure I will ever get over seeing cows grazing at 16,000 feet. 1,500 feet above Mt Rainier.

The high alpine terrain was beautiful with rolling hills. Snow capped mountains, blending in with the basin grasslands.

You could hike wherever you wanted. Hence the need for a GPS. There were hiking trails but no signage so it was difficult to see the difference between a hiking trail and a cow trail.

Brooke has never done much off trail hiking. The guidebook had quotes like “at the big white rock, turn left”. Some times this was very helpful while other times you looked around thinking “what big white rock”. This is where the GPS came in really handy.

When the GPS dropped us into and beautiful lake basin, we were all eager to camp at the lake instead of having the luxury of a bathroom at the campground down valley.

The night was cold. We woke to frost on our tent and frozen terrain.

We were told to expect to wake up every morning to a frozen tent. We were very lucky that it only happened to us twice.

After a cold morning in camp, we headed out for the high alpine route described in our guidebook.

Our routine quickly became putting all your clothes on at the start the hiking day. By mid-day we were down to a short sleeve shirt. The Peruvian sun was definitely hot.

As we climbed out of the lake basin, I saw my second or third animal skull. Not something we see a lot of in the Cascades but I think that is because of all the under brush.

It was interesting to be hiking in such warm temperatures if you were in the direct sunlight. But anything in the shade was still covered with ice.

Even the high mountain terrain, allowed you to walk anywhere. We could see for miles.

But the terrain was so rugged in places, that being able to see for miles was not much help. We really needed the guidebook and GPS route to help us navigate through the cliffy section.

After a long day which felt so much longer due to the altitude, we arrived Carhuacocha Campground.

There were 3 independent parties and one guided group of 3 clients. The guide, Marco, welcomed us to camp and helped us setup our tent. Over the next 3 days, we spent more camp time with Marco than his own clients. While his clients rested in their tents, we sat in Marco’s dining tent and exchanged climbing stories.

The next morning we woke to low clouds and Jim was sick with a 24 hour stomach bug. Today was quoted in the guidebook as one of the best view points on the trip. Trekkers would hike / climb along side 3 mountain lakes with the big peaks coming all the way down to touch the lakeshore.

Brooke was not leaving camp until the clouds started to lift. She took this time to finish reading “Touching the Void”. The true story of Joe Simpson’s incredible survival of a climbing accident in the 1980’s. In just 3 days, we would be looking up the glacier Joe Simpson had to descend all alone with a broke leg.

While Brooke headed out on the standard view route, Jim and I opted for the shorter, “no view”, mule route. We needed to make the day as easy on Jim as possible.

As the clouds began to lift, Jim and I wondered why this was called the “no views” route.

As we hiked through the basin, we decided that if we didn’t know there was a more scenic route, we would have considered this to be the “view” route.

Even though this route was much easier than the standard route, it still had a 1,500 foot climb to a pass.

Once over the pass, our “no view” route exploded with beauty.

We didn’t realize how many mountain lakes we would pass during our 10 day hike.

Just when we thought the views couldn’t get any better, we went through a gap in the rocks and were treated to a view worthy of a break.

What must the standard route views been like?

As Jim and I continued to descend into the valley, we discussed the accuracy of the guidebook. It had said this route would only take 3-4 hours yet we were on hour 7. Good thing Jim was feeling better.

Eventually, we saw the camp below.

Brooke was relieved to see us and glad her dad was feeling better. The trip would go on.

That night we were treated to some amazing sunset colors.

Do to Peru’s location in relationship to the equator, we had 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Since the temperatures plummeted after the sun went down, we were typical asleep by 8pm and up at 6am. We all enjoyed our 10 hours of sleep each night.

The next day was to be one of the easiest on the trek ending in a camp with a hot spring. We spent the day hiking together. A rarity since Brooke was feeling very little effect of the altitude and was hiking incredibly strong. Jim even had troubles keeping up with her. I tried to give her more weight to slower her down but it didn’t seem to make much difference.

The scenery continued to make us stop and take more pictures. No wonder this trek was rated in the top 10 treks in the world. Many consider it to be the best high alpine trek. If it isn’t, I would love to see #1.

We arrived another beautiful flat, grassy camp. Brooke was off to the hot springs the second we got the tent up.

It was nice to be warm in such beautiful surroundings.

The next day, we sent Brooke off to hike with one of the faster groups. To our defense, the other unsupported groups were in there late 20’s. We were once again the old folks.

Jim and I got out of camp just before the mule team supporting the guided group.

For the first 2 hours of the day, we climbed towards Nevado Puscantrurpa.

The view definitely made the climb just a little easier.

At the pass, we were treated to excellent views, both near and far.

The campground was again a beautiful large flat grassy area. You could easily get 40+ tents in the area. We had less than 10. Lots of private space.

This campground had the most unusual bathrooms. Up until this point, all the bathrooms had been pit toilets or toilets where you dumped water in for a forced flow. But this hobbit sized structure had flushing toilets. I only wish I had Jim stand in the doorway for scale.

Though we were hiking during Peru’s dry season (they don’t have summer and winter just wet and dry), we still were told to bring rain gear. The mountains create their own weather.

We were lucky that this was the only morning where we woke to a snow storm. More a grapple storm. The snow was completely gone within 20 minutes of the sun hitting it.

Though there was blue sky in one direction, we needed to go in the other direction. The guided group and the other parties were headed into the sunshine while our high alpine route would send us into the snow. The guide in camp was pretty sure the weather would clear so he encouraged us to head out.

Without good visibility, we quickly ended up on the wrong trail. When we arrived a mountain lake, we knew something was wrong. The guidebook said nothing about a mountain lake.

Time to navigate via the GPS. It took us 30 minutes to get back on track. We had hiked in the complete wrong direction.

Soon we were hiking up to the pass of the day. Our highest pass of the trip so far, over 16,600 feet.

The views were well worth the climb.

From here, we could see Sarapococha lake and Siula Grande basecamp way up valley. We had hoped to camp at the basecamp but with our morning detour, we would have to settle for the nearest lake.

I wouldn’t really call it settling.

It was a cold night so the morning air was very crisp. The morning views were amazing as I hiked up the moraine surrounding our camp …

… and headed into the Siula Grande basecamp basin.

Sarapo mountain turned out to be the star of the basin.

Looking back through the basin, it was difficult to see our down route from yesterday. Boy, this terrain was rugged.

Brooke and Jim ran off to take some pictures while I slowly worked my way up the 3,000 foot climb of the hillside. Today, we would climb to over 17,000 feet.

Soon, I could see up the Siula Grande glacier. It would be incredibly difficult to navigate while standing up. I can’t imagine how Joe Simpson did it while crawling with a broken leg.

The trail to the pass ran high on the hillside giving you fabulous views of the high peaks.

I arrived the high basin at about 16,000 feet. I could see forever. This was a great spot to stop and wait for Jim and Brooke.

After 2 hours of waiting and walking from one side of the high basin to the other, scanning the hillside, I decided something went wrong and returned to the valley floor.

Something had gone wrong, Jim and Brooke has gotten on the wrong trail and were headed to the wrong pass. By the time, they had realized their mistake and corrected it, they had already passed below me. I had descended before they got back to where I was. So much for have two GPS units and visibility for miles.

Our plan for the day was to climb over the high pass then drop to the only town on the circuit, Huayllapa. The town had a hostel, campground, grocery store, and showers. With no tent or stove, I headed for town. I did pass a solo hiker who was heading up to the high pass so I gave him a message for Brooke and Jim in case he saw them.

I arrived Huayllapa under headlamp and found the one person who spoke any English, Omar. The hostel was closed so instead of disturbing the owner of the hostel in her home, Omar invited me to stay at his house. His wife cooked me dinner while Omar and I tried to converse using an English/Spanish dictionary. With no internet, Google translator is useless.

The next day while I waited for Jim and Brooke to arrive, Omar had several of the school age boys take notes out on the trails so Jim and Brooke would know where I was and not worry. Then Omar and I broke into the school so he and I could use the computer lab WiFi to access Google Translator. Omar is one of 11 teachers in the school. The town has over 150+ School age kids. Omar said most families in town had 4-5 children but some had as many as 12 kids.

The people of Huayllapa were wonderful. My original plan was to skip the town all together. I was so glad that didn’t happen. It didn’t matter that we didn’t speak the same language. Everyone still wanted to interact with me. The older people kept saying the same thing over and over getting louder each time. The young kids wanted to sit on my lap and examine my possessions. Omar’s wife did what every mom would, she keep feeding me. It was an experience I will most likely never forget.

Jim and Brooke arrived late afternoon. They had camped way up valley in case I was up there. They were pretty sure I had gone to town but wanted to be safe. In the morning, they saw the solely hiker who had confirmed their assumption that I had gone to town.

After Brooke and Jim’s arrival, the first thing Omar’s wife did was make everyone a late lunch. Then invited us all to stay the night and proceeded to make us dinner.

Since we had lost a day of travel, we woke early and were hiking by 6:15. We figured we needed to hike for 12 hours to get back on schedule. Not a big problem for any of us except I was getting sick.

The views of the countryside opened up again as we climbed out of the town of Huayllapa. We moved from cows to sheep again. So many baby lambs.

As our hiking trail climbed, Jim and I could see the large herd of sheep moving through the basin. As one mother sheep jumped the creek in the basin, her baby lamb fell in the creek.

Jim and I watched as the mother jumped back and forth across the creek calling to her newborn. Her lamb kept trying to get out of the creek but couldn’t. He was standing in the cold water crying for his mommy. So my mother instinct kicked in and I ran down the hill to help.

The baby lamb had got trapped under the embankment. He was up to his belly in cold rushing water. As I jumped in the creek, his mother ran to the protection of the herd.

The baby lamb was no bigger than a large cat. His umbilical cord was dry but had not fallen off. He had to be less than a week old.

I carried the lamb towards the herd encouraging his mother to come back.

Once his mother had returned, I set the baby lamb down and started to walk away. Problem was the baby lamb had decided I was his new protector and followed me.

After one more pickup and pushing him towards his mom, the lamb and sheep smelled each other and headed off through the basin together. I was glad it was a hot day. The baby lamb was shivering when I pulled him from the creek but he would warm up quite quickly in this heat.

The high of saving the lamb last only an hour before the severity of my cold started to set in. We were not going to make it as far as we needed to.

At the high pass of the day, we got out the maps and tried to come up with a new plan.

We were pretty sure we could get up the next pass before dark and camp. We were equally sure we could not get down the next pass before dark. So camping at the pass it would be.

We took only one more break during the next several hours of hiking.

Once we could see our last pass, I sent Jim and Brooke ahead to setup the tent and start getting dinner ready. I was going to collapse soon. Of course, we synchronized GPS’s and got out our storm whistles before they headed up the wall of rock. The GPS showed a trail through the cliff bands.

The textures in the surrounding hillsides kept me entertained for the next hour.

Amazing how you could find grassy basins in between the cliff bands. Hence, cow poop at 16,000 feet.

When I reached the pass, Jim and I exchanged whistles. Within the next 30 minutes, I was out of the wind and in the tent drinking hot soup.

I was treated to one more pink sunsets when I got out of the tent to pee.

We were all pretty sure I could not finish the trek and would have to bailout. Problem was we had a scheduled pickup at the treks end. We would have to split up once again.

Equipped with a GPS and InReach, Brooke took off around 7am to meet up with our driver. Jim and I left at 8am heading for the bailout route.

Both routes started with a short climb and a beautiful, hour long ridge run.

I almost forgot I was sick.

Too bad the sun was behind the peaks. The view was spectacular but did not photograph well.

As Jim and I started to descend the ridge, the sun got high enough to allow some photos.

After a long decent “off the face of the earth” according to the guidebook, we ended up in a field of cows surrounded by high, snow covered peaks. This is definitely how I will remember Peru.

As we left the mountains behind us and walked through our last little homestead, I thought crap, we still have one more pass to climb before we could go home.

————- Complete Photo Gallery (click to enlarge) ————-