Chucky's Adventures: Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit,Ancash, Peru

Executive Summary..

12 day, Donkey Supported trek through the Peruvian Andes, crossing passes between 4500 and 5000m in the shadows of Giant peaks to 6600m..

Long winded version below…

Fair to say that I had a handful of ´must do´activities in the continent… Torres Del Paine in Patagonia, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia and the Cordillera Huayhuash circuit in Peru.

The full circuit usually takes about 8 days of walking, but we had time on our side and wanted to be able to do some side trips, so booked ourselves a 14 day round trip from Huaraz with a trekking Agency in town.

Ute ride up valley from Llamac to our start in Matacancha

Starting at 4am from Huaraz, there is a 3 hour bus ride to Chiquian (3400m) where we grabbed a little breakfast. Our guide Thomas didn´t speak any english, so making arrangements and agreeing on what was to happen next was a strech with my limited spanish..

Despite this, we got on another smaller bus to Llamac that took about 1.5 hours via some horrendously dodgey roads with HUGE (1000m plus) drops to the valley below. A third ride in the back of a ute saw us to our start point, Matacancha by late afternoon.

We´d had discussions about the route we wanted to take through the hills, but Thomas either didn´t understand me, or wouldn´t be budged from his plan. This dissapointed us at first as the routes seemed to be the low level Donkey Trails rather than the more scenic high routes. But as we traipsed our way up steeply on Day one, I needn´t have worried about bad views.

It was just going to be Guide, donkeys, Steph and I, but a stroke of luck came in two very last minute companions. Stuart, a very friendly and chatty Scott and Antonio an equally interesting Spaniard. Fortunately for us, Stuart spoke pretty good Spanish, which really helped facilitate things (like high routes and extra food) along the way. He was also a constant source of conversation and enthusiasm. Antonio barely spoke any English, but had the enthusiasm, patience and logic to converse in simple spanish with me..

Campsite at Matacancha, our blue dining tent on the left.

Clear blue skies on the climb to Cacanampunta 4700m

We had 4 Burro´s (Donkeys) to carry all the stuff, plus an Arriero (donkey man) to push them along. Steph and my gear was squished into a big purple roll bag, which formed half of one Burro load. Thomas had a two burner gas stove, 9kg gas bottle, ´big top´ like Dining tent and what seemed like copious quantities of food.

For breakfast, we´d normally get served Pan y marmelada (bread and Jam) with two cups of hot water for tea etc. Snacks would be given for each day´s walking and lunch would usually be at the next camp, regardless of the time that we arrived. This made for some very hungry (and grumpy) trekkers early on in the circuit, so we began asking for bread on some of the longer days. Dinner would start with Sopa (Soup) usually a yummy vege mix, but sometimes having small fry Trutcha (rainbow trout) too. Main course would be some combination of rice or potatoes with vege´s and sometimes meat or fish. Generally they were pretty tasty, but there were the occaisonal failure..

Our Burro´s cross the Cacanampunta
(Punta are passes, Cocha are Lakes)

Steph and Friend at Mitucocha

After one spectacular day trip beneath the faces of Yerupaja (highest peak in the range) we came back to the tent in the rain to find that our Guide was drunk. Not just a little bit, but very drunk. Glazed eyes and swaying head were the first clues, but when he served up 2 minute noodles with a boiled Trout floating in the midst we knew it wasnt good.. The tent was sprawled with food and gear and leaked profusely. Not his best moment..

Though usually meal times were full of chatter and laughter, mostly thanks to Stuarts unbridled enthusiam and penchant for talking…

On the windward eastern side of the range there was a pretty predictable weather pattern. Each morning would dawn frosty, clear and calm. By about 9am the first scraps of cloud would swirl the high peaks and by lunch the cumulus would be towering and turning into grey thunder clouds. Anywhere from 1 to 5pm would see the start of the rain, sometimes thunder which would usually last till after dark. So the plan was to get up at dawn (about 5 am) and get the walking done by about lunchtime before the rain begain. Thus there was often time to sit about in your tent and read, listen to music or have a snooze in the afternoons.

Dan at Ninacocha, beneath Jirishanca 6094m

Guide and Arriero admire the NE face of Suila Grande 6344m

Most days we walked between 3 and 5 hours, crossing one major pass before descending down to a campsite in another valley. Essentially we were walking through high country free range farms on stock tracks from wee village to village. Campsites were often close to huge alpine lakes, with reflections of the Andean Giants above. Half way through our trek the nearest body of water was a concrete set hotsprings.. Just the ticket for making everything feel clean again!

The only drag was the constant sight of rubbish. On the trail, round the campsites, all over the place. There seemed a very lax attitude to disposal of toilet waste too, with little ´loo paper flowers´ sprouting all around. It was really sad to be honest and we made sure that we left the campsites cleaner than when we arrrived..

Yerupaja 6634m, Yerupaja Chico and Jirishanca from Carhuacocha

Laguna Siula

Sarapo Glacier

Dan, Steph and Stuart high on the Morraine by Sarapo Glacier

The highlight of the trip was the big day that Stuart, Steph and I did to Suila Grande base Camp. Famous for its role in ´Touching the Void´ Suila Grande was something of an obsession for Stuart. He hatched a plan with Steph and I for a big day up to the Base camp, whilst the others took the easy route to the next camp. Despite some protest from an upset belly, I joined the others at 4am to climb up over San Antonio Pass (5020m). We arrived at the top just on dawn and were treated to an incredible light show over the peaks of Suila Grande, Sarapo and Carcinero. After tricky routefinding on the descent, we hiked up valley and up through morraine to Joe Simpson and Simon Yates´ base camp. A pretty amazing place to be and to appreciate the story by being at the scene of the events.. 25km and 12 hours after setting off, we stumbled into the town of Huallapa to meet our team and crash into bed..

14 days had sounded great when we signed up, but with sore feet and weary bodies we hatched a plan to cut it short by two days. It was a welcome relief to arrive back at Llamac but even better to be back in Huaraz with showers, real beds and our choice of meal.