Sometime during the winter of 2018/19 my friend and I began to look into the idea of heading to South America for a road trip focussed on skiing and climbing our way south through Argentina. As with most ideas that I get excited about, the seed had been planted in some pretty fertile ground and the plans grew arms and legs in no time. Work, a lack of confidence to see things through and a plethora of other excuses saw the idea shelved along with the guidebooks. Destined to gather dust alongside the resultant guidebooks from previous flights of fancy.

Time progressed, circumstances for both my friend and I changed and my map changed to such an extent that I’m not sure South America even existed for a while. If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you’ll know that the last couple of years have been a journey, a voyage of discovery even. Surgery in January of this year marked what I hoped would be the start of the end of the recovery process from my back injury. As my back improved, so too, my ability to work and earn increased. Although often a case of two steps forward, one step back as I frequently found my limitations through pushing too hard, improvement has been steady. Offered the chance of three months work in Norway which would end at the start of August, I realised that I would be able to afford and at the same time could not afford to miss the opportunity to spend some time in Peru towards the end of the dry season.

The trip could hardly have got off to a worse start as the stewardess handed out the last three G&Ts on the flight to our row. 9 hours to go and no more G & T. Chatting with the couple on my row it slowly dawned on me just how excited I actually was to be going somewhere big and new. When asked what I was going to do, all I could say was ‘have an adventure’. I had compiled a long list of places to visit, mountains to climb and photos I’d like to take. If I managed to tick just one thing off the list then the trip would be a success.

A brief layover in Houston, 6 more hours of flying, 2 hours of queueing in immigration and then 45 mins of pleading with customs not to charge me for the extra camera lenses I had brought with me and I was in Lima. Winding our way through the late night traffic, the rickety taxi jolting any notion of sleep I might have had from my bones. Right side of the road, left side of the road, horns beeping, smiles, chatter in Spanish to anyone and everyone who would listen and then a dingy side street and my ‘hotel’.

I’m not sure what I expected for $29 but it was certainly a window into what was to come for the next five weeks. A basic, primitive hotel, but one whose proprietors welcomed me so warmly at 2.30am and who were all up again for breakfast at 7.30am and excited to take photos and help me in any way they could.

Just an 8 hour bus ride to go. From sea level, up over 4000m and back to 3090m where Huaraz lies. My base for the trip. Dropping my bags in the hostel it was time to explore what the town had to offer foodwise. Sadly my hunger levels and patience for seeking out places with good reviews left me eating a very disappointing pizza and heading back to the hostel to crawl into bed.

The view from the street just above Monkeywasi Hostel

The Morning brought the start of 5 weeks of unbelievably stable weather. I dragged myself out to see what I could just after sunrise. I was lucky that my hostel was in an elevated position in Huaraz and thus I got my first view of the mighty Huascaran Norte and Sur bathed in the early morning light.

After a day of acclimatising to the new base level altitude and finding decent coffee places (or at least finding out where they were as it turns out the good ones close on a Sunday), It was time to make a plan for acclimatisation.

Laguna Churup

First up, a 45 min drive in a collectivo from Huaraz followed by a steady hike from 3840 to 4450m. Just under two hours from the trail head and I had my first glimpse of one of the many beautiful glacial lakes that the Andes is famed for. Nestled under Nevado Churup, the laguna is an oasis of calm and tranquillity. Crystal clear water, sun warmed rocks and snow capped peaks. If this is what Peru had in store for me then I was in for a treat.

A couple of hours of sun bathing and photography later and it was time to retrace my steps to the collectivo meeting point and on to Huaraz and packing for my next couple of days.

I had already sampled the kitchen of the hostel and decided that weight loss would be sufficiently achieved from time at altitude. There was, therefore, no need to run the dysentery gauntlet by cooking in the accomodation. So began my voyage of Peruvian culinary discovery in one of the many great places to eat in Huaraz.

Laguna LLaca

Having spent a few nights at 3000m, it was time to spend a night in my tent a bit higher and push the acclimatisation a little. It was also an opportunity get some photos from another classic laguna. So it was that I found myself waiting for the collectivo just before 7am. My substantially heavier bag was an insight in to what was to come once I ventured into the higher mountains for multiple nights. For now though I was facing 15km and 1000m of ascent with around a 20kg backpack. My first test of pretty much off the couch fitness. A very brief look at the map told me it was a steady trail around a headland and then up the Quebrada Llaca (Llaca Valley). I estimated around 3 - 5 hours having read the description. This however didn’t take into account that I was starting a good hour further away or the small matter of a 2.5km wander up the wrong valley having failed to look properly at the map. 6 hours and some very tired legs later, I was at 4500m and pitching my tent across from the Llaca Refuge where the Peruvian arm of the IFMGA train.

With my tent pitched, I walked the 10 mins up to the lake to cook dinner whilst taking some photos and waiting for sunset. What a treat!

After a couple of hours at the lake, I returned to my tent and settled in for the evening. A quick check of Photopills suggested that I may have inadvertently pitched my tent to line up with the Milky Way at around 8.57 pm. At 8.45 I unzipped my tent door and was pretty blown away by what I saw. It meant I was duty bound to leave the comfort and warmth of my tent, but it’s hard to be annoyed when you get a view like this.

Finally back in my tent, I switched the light out and so began ‘Cow Gate’. A whole night of trying to dissuade the local cows from investigating the interior of my tent too closely. Unfortunately some neighbouring climbers left for their summit attempt on Vallunaraju at around midnight. They must have left some food open and close to the edge of their tent because no amount of shouting or stone throwing would deter them from making an entrance to an unguarded tent. Alas, no sooner had a cow managed to rip it’s way inside the tent than it freaked and bolted whilst wearing the tent. All that was left to do was gather up the shredded belongings of the climbers and leave them in a pile where the tent used to be. I imagine a bitter sweet summit day awaited them.

Morning came and I made the trudge back to the trail head without the wrong turns and with less searing heat than the day before. With some lessons learned, it was time to aim myself at some acclimatisation summits and a little longer at altitude. All after a couple of days of food, coffee and rest in Huaraz and an opportunity to fly my drone at sunrise before the winds got too high..

Climbing and Photography in Peru: Arriba Peru!!

ARRIBA PERU!!

Laguna Churup

Laguna LLaca

Climbing and Photography in Peru: Arriba Peru!!

ARRIBA PERU!!

Laguna Churup

Laguna LLaca

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