Peru
About 50 years ago, it is hard to believe, I was doing my military service in the mountain division, surrounded by people crazy about the mountains, be it climbing, skiing and what would be called trecking, or all of the above. One of my sergeants at the time got bitten by a bug about a place called "Peru" and he was raving about it. It is difficult for a contemporary audience to believe how hard (and expensive!) it was at that time to get to that far away place for a person of limited financial means. And a sergeant was of limited financial means, to be sure!
Ever since I have been wanting to go there, but I either did have the time but not the money or had the money but not the time until, finally, in almost my dotage, I have the funds and the time! So this Fall I finally went to Peru with the objective of doing three hikes: Cordillera Huayush, the Cordillera Blanca traverse and Ausangate.
Cordillera Huayhuash
I based myself in Huaraz, a town of ~150k inhabitants about 400 km NE of Lima that one can reach by a 8-9 hr bus ride. Huaraz sits at 3750 m altitude (ft) and hanging out in Huaraz for a couple of days with maybe some day hikes thrown in for good measure is a good (and necessary!) way to acclimatize before venturing out to the cordillera.
The Cordillera Huayuash circuit is about 130 km (80 mi) in length, depending on the variant one chooses. For those who just want to have a sniff at it, one can also just do four days, but, really, why bother? There are two principal ways of doing this hike, the classical alpinist way where you carry your food and gear and camp where you feel like it and a supported approach where your gear and food is carried by donkeys and you just have to walk from camp to camp. The latter approach is chosen by > 95% of all hikers (no typo!), independent hikers are a rare breed. Yours truly belongs to it. I met three young French and a Dutchman who were independent hikers. That was it!
During my preparation I came across a post by Cam Honan (The Hiking Life) who recommended doing a "full circuit" itinerary and that spoke to me. You take a two hour bus ride from Huaraz to Chiquian very early in the AM. As you spill out of the bus in the town square a small Chinese or Japanese mini bus is waiting to pick you up to get you to the trailhead. This vehicle is a rolling testament to the power of Bondo and duct tape, but the the motor and the brakes work and that's all that counts. The Nazario company runs a bus to Llamac that requires a slightly less adventurous spirit.
After passing through Llamac the bus continues to Pocpa where I got off and then on to Quartelhuain where most if not all of the guided trips commence. Four young guys who also got off in Pocpa headed immediately to the corral where the arrieros (donkey drivers) offer their services. So I was going to be a solo hiker climbing out of Pocpa. That was fine with me.
Pocpa sits at 3450 m ( ft ) altitude and the pass above the town that I intended to cross sits at 4550 m. The plan was to cross the pass and descend to Laguna Jahuacocha. It did not work out that way and the reason it did not was that I did not pace myself properly, starting off too fast and then running out of gas. I might possibly have made it down to the laguna before nightfall, but I was not sure and, knowing that the last bit of the descent was going to be rather steep, I was not sure whether there was going to be camping were I to run out of daylight. I therefore camped some 500 ft below the pass on the Pocpa side at a spot that offered 'acceptable' camping among the cow pies. During the climb I had passed one water source and foolishly neglected to fill up. Do not follow my example!
Next morning I made it over the pass and then had a long traverse/descent across grassy slopes. All in all about 40 donkeys with about 8 arrieros were coming the other way. They had finished their standard 8-day itinerary the night before at L. Jahuacocha camp and were heading home to Pocpa or Llamac. Later, in the steep descent portion of the hike to the laguna the groups they had been supporting were being led up the mountain. I made it down to the pampa and then to the campsite near L. Jahuacocha. I only felt like hanging out and vegetating, therefore called it a day very early. If I were to do it again, I would continue on for another mile or two to the shore of the laguna in order to get away from the organized groups. Between the groups celebrating the completion of their itinerary, the donkeys, the dogs, the arrieros starting their chores at 4 AM, the campsite is very noisy and really does not offer anything that makes it worthwhile to hang out there. Ok, there is a flushing toilet, but that's it in terms of facilities.
Next morning I made my way to L. Jahuacocha and then to L. Solteracocha and from there climbed in direction of Paso Rondoy (4750 m). During the ascent I figured out how to pace myself. I chose a frequency of steps that kept my heart rate under control and adjusted my step length that allowed me to have a reasonable breath rate. This worked perfectly and I could climb 100 m/300 ft without having to take a break to catch a breath or to prevent my heart coming out by my shirt collar. A marked improvement from the first day! It helps that most of the trails are of the "ramp" style rather than the "stair case" style, so placing one foot in front of the other is easy. Whenever you have to push yourself up in a "stair case" it's a bit harder, but you can always choose the smallest step height possible and it works out ok.
Halfway up a dog came the other way and he adopted me. I called him "Shadow" as he always hung out behind me and whenever I stopped he chose a rock or plant casting a shadow to lie down in. Once across Paso Rondoy an extended traverse on clear trail awaits that will take you to Quartelhuaian. Upon arrival that campsite was unexpectedly quiet. There were arrieros with their animals, but hardly any hikers. The clients would be turning up next morning, after I had already left in direction of L. Mitacocha.
The climb out of Quartelhuaian camp starts off gently enough across meadows until you reach a "pass" and then the real climb starts in earnest. The trail is excellent as it is also used by the donkey trains, but it is rather steep in places. You reach the crest and have a great view into the wide valley below. On the day I was there a fierce cold wind was blowing and I was not going to linger. After descending some 500 ft there was a shielded spot where I could take a rest, watch the donkey trains go by and enjoy the scenery.
View from the pass down the valley on the other side 
Based on information in the Pike guide and my Gaia maps I had planned to leave the route that the guided groups and donkeys take and cut across to L. Mitacocha off trail. Alas there was a sign that threatened a S./ 600 fine (~ $200) for anyone who did so. I did not see the enforcer of said rule, but my Spanish is not sufficient to ask for either permission or forgiveness, or to pull my head out of a noose.
Further down where one also could also have left the trail, a second sign threatened sanctions, but the price had dropped to S./ 200. Still too expensive! So I made my way to the Janca campsite via the conventional route that the guided groups take.
Next morning I left the conventional circuit and started following the the circuito alpino, the High Route if you will. I regretted that I had not continued the day before to the shores of L. Mitacocha which would have provided a much more serene camping experience. In any case, I climbed up grassy slopes above the SE corner of the laguna, rather steeply in places, but if you use natural ramps in the terrain it is not too bad. You reach a pass at 4500 m, but you should not cross into the valley on the other side. Instead climb on a faint use trail on the Southern flank of the pass, below and to the right of the crest. After several hundred meters a more significant trail comes up from the right and you follow it across the crest at around 4650-4700 m. It is quite obvious.
What follows is a longish traverse South on a steep hillside that features glacier-polished rock slabs that one has to cross. Fortunately, unlike in the Sierra Nevada where these slabs would be made of slick granite, the base rock here is limestone/dolomite and these rocks are much more easily weathered than granite is. So, although the slabs look steep, they provide good foot and hand holds and crossing them is straightforward. Until it is not. I reached a slab that I could not persuade myself that I should be able to pass safely and was forced to descend. It turns out that everybody before me had come to the same conclusion as at the bottom a slight use trail appeared that took me to the head of the glacial valley and to the trail in the scree that allowed me to climb out of the valley. I topped out at 4850 m, the first time being that high since slightly more than 50 years earlier when I had climbed Montblanc in France. I remember that climb as if it had been yesterday, yet more than 50 years have passed! Vita brevis!
I continued on to a viewpoint (mirador) above L. Carhuacocha from where one could see one of the iconic mountains of the Huayhuash circuit, Jirishanca (6094 m) and also had a preview of one of the other iconic sites (and sights) coming up, the Tres Lagunas. Incidentally, the trail leading to the mirador does not appear on the Gaia GPS app, but it is very distinct and can be followed easily. Along the way you can also divert to L. Chaclan via an off-trail route. My French friends did that and enjoyed it. I was a bit too pooped to join them. Going that way also has the advantage that you don't need to camp at L. Carhuacocha (see below).
I camped above L. Carhuacocha at the house of a campesino who charged a small fee for the privilege. I preferred this arrangement in order to avoid camping where all the guided groups were camping at the shore of L. Carhuacocha. I made the right choice here, the large camp site stank of donkey shit and piss as I passed by next morning. This was nothing short of disgusting! There is not much room for all these groups to camp and hence the byproducts are concentrated in a small area. I was reminded of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the Goethe poem, set to music by Paul Ducas. In it the apprentice turns a broom into a bucket brigade and creates a flood that he does not know how to stop until the master returns and utters the appropriate words that order the broom back into the corner. The arrieros are making, relatively speaking, good money from supporting the guided groups, given what the alternatives for earning their livelihood would be. Their incentive is to shuffle through as many groups as they can in as short a time as possible. However, this creates a lot of erosion as horse and donkey hooves rip up the trail, the donkey/horse shit accumulates and is not easily manageable, there is considerable evidence for overgrazing at the sites where the guided groups typically camp. In other words, given the demand for guided tours, this is not sustainable, but the campesinos can't afford to turn off or even manage the cash cow.
Next morning I made my way to and past the Tres Lagunas. It's a stunning sight and literally everybody makes their way through this valley to the mirador and it is just plain busy. When a guided group starts the ascent it is best to hang back a bit and let them get ahead before you as a solo hiker follow them. If you are too close to the group you will be subject to the accordion effect, meaning that you have to stop climbing whenever one member of the group ahead of you stops to catch their breath. There is just no room to pass easily. I had observed it from below, made the right decision to wait and had a straightforward, smooth ascent without the need to take involuntary breaks. Once past the mirador, the terrain opens up and everybody can proceed at their own pace to cross Paso Siula and continue on to camp Huayhuash.
Most but not all groups proceed from camp Huayhuash to camp Viconga through the main valley. I diverted from the main route onto the circuito alpino again, making my way to Paso del Trapecio (5050 m). From the pass one can then climb up to another mirador with a view of the Jurau glacier, the Trapecio peak and the Jurau peak. What a sight!
My plan had been to continue on from the mirador via a valley between Trapecio peak and Jurauroju peak. As I scouted around to find the entrance to that route I spotted two fairly substantial cairns and thought I had found my way. In looking around how to continue beyond the cairns I quickly came to the conclusion that this was asking me to do things that were way,way too sketchy. The chutes filled with loose gravel and loose talus and they were so steep that I could not see what was below, just a no good scene and way above my risk tolerance. Reluctantly I resigned myself to going a standard route itself when I happened upon a much more moderate chute and decided to explore that. Lo' and behold, I could see smaller cairns down below in relatively benign terrain and following them I found my way into the bowl below the Jurau glacier. The first set of cairns apparently were marking spots for taking photos rather than spots for getting down from the mirador, a very good illustration of the old saw that one never knows what exactly a cairn is marking. All you know is that someone had been there before you, for what purpose always remains unknown!
The correct chute points into a southwesterly direction and then the route turns NNW passing between Jurauraju and Trapecio. By pure chance I had latched onto the route that would lead me past the
bottom of the Jurau glacier onto a limestone/dolomite slope that had
been polished by a glacier a long time ago. Here again Gaia GPS does not
show this route, you just have to try to find the cairns. A set of cairns led me through this mess onto a grassy moraine, past a round turquoise laguna, L. Juraucocha, and from there into a valley to the NW from which one can access the Siula Grande base camp at L. Sarapococha. I had no interest in doing that, instead I wanted to climb Cerro Gran Vista (5156 m) from which it was said one has a stunning view of Sarapo, Siula Grande and Yerupajá. My French friends joined me on this side trip. Gaia shoes a trail going from L. Sarapococha to just South of Paso Seria. I don't think that trail exists any more as a result of a major landslide. We climbed from the moraine SW of L. Sarapococha in a SW direction, ending up in the bowl that's obvious from the map and then climbed up to the ridge running in South/North direction.
The climb was hard, especially at first as the trail was faint and one often had to follow the cow trails and they are hard on the ankles, but after a couple of hundred meters the terrain featured some ramp-like sections with a more moderate slope. Obviously climbing to 5150 m is not exactly a walk in the park, but if you keep at it, you'll be getting there. In the upper reaches I saw a herd of huémul, the Latin American deer, alas in the distance. They were scared up by three campesinos looking for their cows. These guys were walking up the mountain in the fall line without breaking a sweat. Amazing! They found their cows hiding out in a bowl at 4900 m, South of the Cerro Gran Vista summit.
Eventually I reached the peak and was rewarded with the view I had hoped for. What a sight!
One continues on along the crest towards the North to Paso Seria. This is a bit of an orienteering challenge, the best path is not necessarily right on the crest but some 20-30 ft below it. From there one has to contend with a steep sandy descent best done via boot skiing until one hits a steep scree slope that gets one down to the moraine atop L., not entirely comfortably. From there one just walks the pampa in Valle Caramarca down to the hamlet of Huyallapa. The upper pampa is swampy and one best sticks to the left margin of the valley. Eventually you reach some old corrals and from there it's straightforward. In Huyallapa there are two small stores for a marginal resupply and some of the ladies in town will cook a meal for you if you ask around. Huyallapa is also the point where the circuito alpino rejoins the standard route. One climbs up steeply in a gorge to the lower or upper campsites of Huatica. Surprisingly, there was nobody there. The guided groups push on to the campsite at Gashpapampa. So I and my French friends got to enjoy a sunny, warm late afternoon at upper Huatica and of course another freezing cold night.
Next morning I climbed out at the head of the valley and made it across the pass South of L. Susacocha. This is an old road with some false passes along the way. It kinda drags on and on. At the wide pass at the top an absolutely frigid and fierce wind was blowing. Following the donkey trail down the other side to Guspha was straightforward. There I made a mistake that illustrates the old saw that the map is not the landscape. Looking at the map I decided to go straight at Guspha and to not climb up the East over Paso Yauche which would lead me to the camp at L. Jahuacocha. I had been there already, so why go there again and put up with all the hullaballoo of the guided groups? If I were to go straight to Qashpapampa and then down to the creek coming from L. Jahuacocha, I could climb up to the canal that runs at 3950 m to a "wild campsite" noted on the map and be in Llamac next morning. And so I did. A non-obviously bad choice as it turned out.
Getting onto the trail that runs on or above the right bank of the creek was an adventure of its own. While I eventually did find the trail, it has been washed off the hillside in landslides and you have to climb around these. I had assumed the donkeys were not using this trail (don't ask me how I got that idea) which turned out to be incorrect and it was as rocky, torn up and dusty as all the other trails that the arrieros use. At the very bottom I received the coup de grace: there was a road that was not on my map. As they constructed the road they covered the trail leading down to the creek with the construction debris. Furthermore, as I looked more closely at the map I did not see that the map indicated the presence of a bridge across the creek. Looking at the creek from the road, it was a roaring mess and if I had to ford the creek, this would be a definite no-go. So I followed the road West, had to hike a good way into the pampa East of L. Jahuacocha until I could finally ford the creek and then had to find the entry into the trail running along the canal at 3950 m. In summary, this was an example of something that looks attractive on the map and is a nightmare of unforeseen complications in the real landscape. Therefore, "Wanderer if you come to, Guspha do not go straight and go over Paso Yauche instead". After all, you do not have to stay at the camp. As soon as you reach the pampa you can veer left and find the entry to the trail running along the canal or, if you are still ambitious, climb the trail via Pampa Llamac.
Since all these complications had slowed me down, I had to camp on the rather narrow bench that the canal runs on. Shortly before it became completely dark an arriero with seven donkeys and horses came by. The lead donkey saw my tent and stopped, the arriero (they really are always in back and not leading their pack) started to holler and curse as is their SOP. The donkey took down my tent as it was trying to put as much of distance between itself and myself. It was kind of the cherry on top of the shit sundae of that day.
Next morning I finished the walk along the canal and then descended through the terraces above Llamac on a rocky horror (picture) of a trail, dusty, rocky and requiring full attention all the time. As I entered town I encountered the same husband/wife team that had taken me from Chiqian to Pocpa, who were waiting for hikers needing transportation back to Chiquiuan. This was the end of the hike of the Cordillera Huayhuash.
Summary: Spectacular, as the pictures in this post hopefully show. Not as hard as I had thought, even if you do it alpine style rather than as part of a guided group. I fully endorse the recommendation of Cam Honan: do the full circuit from Pocpa to Llamac if you have the time, it's worth it.
If you go:
Acclimation hikes: book them in Huaraz directly with the agencies, not via Viator or GetYourGuide and similar shysters. When you book and pay, make sure that there are a sufficient number of people already signed up for that day so that they have the quorum for the trip actually taking place. Laguna 69, Laguna Churup, Laguna Shallap are good one-day hikes for acclimation.
Once out of Quartelhuain you will not go below 4000 m for any length of time until your last day. Standard route passes are up to 5050 m, circuito alpino passes are up to 5150 m. Hiking between 4000 and 5000 m is an entirely different beast than hiking between 3000 and 4000 m. Count on not being your sharpest, to frequently feel dizzy. I suffered of appetite suppression (I could not eat all of my snacks every day, something that has never happened before) and getting a good night's sleep was elusive.
I had no issues with HAPE or HACE, but brought dexamethasone just in case. Be aware that it is not always possible to get to lower altitude without first climbing higher.
Climate: Most nights were clear and very cold. There was hoar on the ground every morning, the water in the water bottles was partially frozen every morning. During the day temps were around 60 to 75F, often with a very stiff breeze that died down at sunset. You can see sufficiently at about 6:15 AM and you definitely want to be in camp by 6 PM. as soon as the sun sets the temps drop a good 10-15 degrees.
Water: plentiful but in definite need of purification because of the extent of animal husbandry. The amount of cow, horse and donkey shit you'll be seeing is sometimes really hard to believe. I used Aquamira or bleach. I did not trust myself to always remember to put the filter into my sleeping bag to prevent it from freezing.
Fuel: Isobutane/propane cartridges are available on the main drag in Huaraz, but very expensive S./ 33 (= $11) for a 230 g fill. Be aware that not all gas burner tops work very well at altitude. For example my SnowPeak stove did not work above 4000 m. I had no problem with my alcohol stove (it is good that I am paranoid and brought both stoves) and 95% Ethanol is available in Pharmacies for S./10 (= $3)/L (I had no luck in the ferreterias close to the Huaraz market.
Resupply: there are two supermarket chains, Trujillo and. The latter has US-style creamy peanut butter in plastic jars, the former only peanut butter of thin, honey-like consistency in glass jars (= messy!). Potato flakes (Knorr brand) only at. is also the store that has decent chocolate. Oats, with the exception of steel-cut, are widely available as is full-fat milk powder, a variety of nuts and dried fruit.
Money: Make sure to carry small bills when you go to the outlying hamlets and when using collectivo buses. Lots of money changers (cambio) and ATMs in Huaraz.
Transportation: Buses and collectivos are cheap, they leave town very early. The first bid of any cab driver is completely out to lunch. Make sure that any sum mentioned is in soles and not dollars. For example I was quoted S./ 100 for a cab from Pitek to Huaraz. After walking for an hour from Pitek to Llupa I took a collectivo to town for S./ 2.30.
Fees: The various communities that run the camps charge a fee of between 20 and 50 soles (Aug '26), cash only. Don't expect much in terms of services in return, it's simply a shake-down.
Guide book: The Pike guide is all you really need
