Wow, what an amazing expierence I just had! I have been hiking in the Andes, specifically I just completed the Santa Cruz trail, in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range near the town of Huaraz, Peru.
We started with a nice great gruop of 7. Two other Americans who were both transplants to the country, one studying in Vermont from Spain, and another who moved over with his family from Germany because his dad was recruited to be a proffesor at MIT....not bad! They were madly in love! There was also one Australian, two from Sweeden, and one from Denmark. 4 guys and 3 girls. A three hour bus ride started the trip from Huaraz, it was tight..and we were all tired leaving at 7 am. We arrived around 10, and everyone was ready to go. We had a quick snack, asked a couple of English guys where the trail head was, and we were on our way!
At first the trail winded through small farms were the locals again speak Quechan, and hardly any Spanish, which made it hard to communicate, but not impossible. The first woman we encountered begged us for medicine for her eye, one girl whipped out some eye drops and the woman gladly accepted the gift. These people are completely cut off from the world. They grow what they eat, they cook over fire, there is no electricity or plumbing. In fact, the people that we talked to don´t even use money....for anything! Its like stepping back in time 2 or 300 years.
Soon the farms become fewer and fewer and we find ourselves alone in a wonderfully beautiful wilderness. Ranging rivers, fed by terrific waterfalls, wide sweeping medows, and of course amazing snow capped mountains looming overhead. In fact, had I the slightest inclination that we were actually going to be climbing to the top of one of these, I would have thought twice about the whole trip. But, as they say, ignorance is bliss. I figured the trek would walk along the valley of all the great peaks, follow a moderate climb and then decend down.....I was wrong. As was the map that I had bought, which may as well have mapped out a McDonald's playland.
After 5 hours of hiking the first day we had reached our first camp site...and just in time. It began to rain about 4 pm, around 7 it turned into hail, and it didn't stop until, conveinently just before we woke in the morning. After all it is the rainy season here. We awoke to soggy everything, not a pleasent surprise. 2 of the three tents leaked, and many sleeping bags were wet. I managed to stay dry, but many of my things did not. After a long, cold night the other Americans, the couple, decided they were in over their heads, they swiftly and gladly turned around and hiked back to the place were we began. I think everyone considered leaving, but in the end 5 of us decided to continue on.
We packed up, a little wet, beat up, and shocked at the conditions, and hopped back on the trail. Well, sort of. At this point the trail is more like a river, and we rock hopped and rode the edges in a desperate attempt to keep our boots dry. It was to be a big day, we had a 6 hour hike to the summit, and then two hours down to our next campsite. We would accend 1000 meters....or 3,280 ft. during the first 6 hours. We passed through multiple different ecosystems, and you could literally watch the vegitation and wildlife change every 30 minutes or so. As we climbed, I began to realize that those monsterous mountains looming overhead the night before, were getting smaller. We were almost even with the clouds now, and after the clouds came the glaciers, and after the glaciers came the peak. Every hour got tougher, harder to breath, steeper trails, and worse weather. It was difficult to keep going, but I was handeling the altitude relatively well, with the exception of gasping for air, often!, I felt lucky not to expierence any symptoms of the very real and serious altitude sickness. Up there, everything is serious. A wet foot, a turned ankle, a bad knee, a headache...can turn into serious issues quick.
The summit was absolutely exceptional!!! A feeling I will never forget, I was euphoric. I have never ran a marathon before, but runner often speak of a runners high....I definitly felt a real spiritual an emotional high when I reached the top. Whe I looked over to the other side, I almost broke down into tears. A wonderful lake sat at the bottom of several peaks all with massive, awsome blue white glaciers. You could see for miles, and the valley ahead was blanketed with inviting sunshine and turqouise blue lakes.
All five made it to the top, mentally convincing others that all was well, and everyone was going to make it, was no small part of the mission. Upon summiting, we celebrated with pictures and food. I literally felt on top of the world.
After starting the decent we were all in good spirits, and we were flying down the mountain, as it was such a treat from the change of climbing. 15 minutes of treking down, we heard what sounded like a mean thounder from the grey sky above....but upon further visual inspection, we quickly watched as a massive piece of the glacier beside us tore away from the mountain side, plumeting, with building moumentum into the lake below. It was terrific! I have always wanted to see both a glacier, and an avalanche, I achieved both on this trip!
After a couple of hours down we reached our campsite. The sun was shinning! A first in the last 24 hours or so, everone took out everything wet in a desperate attempt to dry them out. We got things drapped over everything, and even had time for 5 minutes of laying down absorbing the gift of sunshine. Only to be rudly awakened by a quickly aproaching storm. We scrambled to pitch our tents and get things inside, but the damage was already done. Things were wet....again. We tried to make dinner and eat, but it was hard being wet and cold.
We took off early the next day, determined to make this 4 day trek into a 3 day trek, we had a long day ahead of us. It started without breakfeast, and soon became a wrong turn on the trail. Actually the trail sort of stopped and we kept going. We knew we were heading in the right direction along this flat, luch green valley, so we felt like everything was ok. There were many small strems in this valley, and soon they combined to form a river. About 200 meters or so after this happened, we realized the trail was on the other side of the river. Not wanting to turn back, we treked across the other side of the lake into which the river flowed. Blazing our own trail was extremely difficult, upon reaching the other side of the lake, we realized the river continued.....but after a little searching we found a great gift...a bridge!! It saved us! We figured that it took at least an hour or two out of our day...but relieved of our recent turmoil, and back on the trail everyone felt good. Still determined to finish on this 3rd day, we continued on. We hiked 10 hours this day down steep hills, in mud, sand, rock, gravel, and water there were amazing sights to be had along the way. Just when we were making good progress one of the girls went down, turning her ankle and brusining her knee. Everyone stopped for the verdict. Waiting in suspense as her pain subsided to hear her diagnosis. She concluded she could keep going, pack and all. I was relieved, we only had a couple of hours left, but every step of the way is tough.
Making it to town seemed almost surreal. Only a few houses, the people were friendly and showed us the way to the ´collectivo´which is essentially a taxi. A nerve wreking 1 hour drive on high mountain dirt roads followed. I was nervous, but we soon reached the town where we caught a bus to Huaraz. Two hours of 60 mph on pot hole ridden roads, made for another nerve wrecker, considering your pack...with everything in it, was tied to the roof in about 30 seconds. I mostly spent my time watching out the back window, waiting for it to fall off! Luckily it didn´t, and our trip was complete. A hot shower awaited at the hostel, and a well deserved dinner and drinks were had by all to celebrate.
I must say this was by far the coolest expierence I have had here so far. I will never forget the sights and feelings of triumph during this trek.
Get comfortable for this one, its a long one!
I will try to give you some perspective of how amazing this mountain range is....but I think it will be hard. They have 6 peaks over 6,000 meters high....thats 19,680 ft., the tallest is 22,199 ft. The tallest in the states is Mt. Denali in Alaska at 20,320 ft., and outside of Alaska, the tallest in the continentat 48 is Mt. Whitney in CA comming in at a meer 14,505 ft. My hike peaked at 15,678....and it was truley incredible! I´m sort of at a loss of words for explaining it all, but I will try, and start at the begining.We started with a nice great gruop of 7. Two other Americans who were both transplants to the country, one studying in Vermont from Spain, and another who moved over with his family from Germany because his dad was recruited to be a proffesor at MIT....not bad! They were madly in love! There was also one Australian, two from Sweeden, and one from Denmark. 4 guys and 3 girls. A three hour bus ride started the trip from Huaraz, it was tight..and we were all tired leaving at 7 am. We arrived around 10, and everyone was ready to go. We had a quick snack, asked a couple of English guys where the trail head was, and we were on our way!
At first the trail winded through small farms were the locals again speak Quechan, and hardly any Spanish, which made it hard to communicate, but not impossible. The first woman we encountered begged us for medicine for her eye, one girl whipped out some eye drops and the woman gladly accepted the gift. These people are completely cut off from the world. They grow what they eat, they cook over fire, there is no electricity or plumbing. In fact, the people that we talked to don´t even use money....for anything! Its like stepping back in time 2 or 300 years.
Soon the farms become fewer and fewer and we find ourselves alone in a wonderfully beautiful wilderness. Ranging rivers, fed by terrific waterfalls, wide sweeping medows, and of course amazing snow capped mountains looming overhead. In fact, had I the slightest inclination that we were actually going to be climbing to the top of one of these, I would have thought twice about the whole trip. But, as they say, ignorance is bliss. I figured the trek would walk along the valley of all the great peaks, follow a moderate climb and then decend down.....I was wrong. As was the map that I had bought, which may as well have mapped out a McDonald's playland.
After 5 hours of hiking the first day we had reached our first camp site...and just in time. It began to rain about 4 pm, around 7 it turned into hail, and it didn't stop until, conveinently just before we woke in the morning. After all it is the rainy season here. We awoke to soggy everything, not a pleasent surprise. 2 of the three tents leaked, and many sleeping bags were wet. I managed to stay dry, but many of my things did not. After a long, cold night the other Americans, the couple, decided they were in over their heads, they swiftly and gladly turned around and hiked back to the place were we began. I think everyone considered leaving, but in the end 5 of us decided to continue on.
We packed up, a little wet, beat up, and shocked at the conditions, and hopped back on the trail. Well, sort of. At this point the trail is more like a river, and we rock hopped and rode the edges in a desperate attempt to keep our boots dry. It was to be a big day, we had a 6 hour hike to the summit, and then two hours down to our next campsite. We would accend 1000 meters....or 3,280 ft. during the first 6 hours. We passed through multiple different ecosystems, and you could literally watch the vegitation and wildlife change every 30 minutes or so. As we climbed, I began to realize that those monsterous mountains looming overhead the night before, were getting smaller. We were almost even with the clouds now, and after the clouds came the glaciers, and after the glaciers came the peak. Every hour got tougher, harder to breath, steeper trails, and worse weather. It was difficult to keep going, but I was handeling the altitude relatively well, with the exception of gasping for air, often!, I felt lucky not to expierence any symptoms of the very real and serious altitude sickness. Up there, everything is serious. A wet foot, a turned ankle, a bad knee, a headache...can turn into serious issues quick.
The summit was absolutely exceptional!!! A feeling I will never forget, I was euphoric. I have never ran a marathon before, but runner often speak of a runners high....I definitly felt a real spiritual an emotional high when I reached the top. Whe I looked over to the other side, I almost broke down into tears. A wonderful lake sat at the bottom of several peaks all with massive, awsome blue white glaciers. You could see for miles, and the valley ahead was blanketed with inviting sunshine and turqouise blue lakes.
All five made it to the top, mentally convincing others that all was well, and everyone was going to make it, was no small part of the mission. Upon summiting, we celebrated with pictures and food. I literally felt on top of the world.
After starting the decent we were all in good spirits, and we were flying down the mountain, as it was such a treat from the change of climbing. 15 minutes of treking down, we heard what sounded like a mean thounder from the grey sky above....but upon further visual inspection, we quickly watched as a massive piece of the glacier beside us tore away from the mountain side, plumeting, with building moumentum into the lake below. It was terrific! I have always wanted to see both a glacier, and an avalanche, I achieved both on this trip!
After a couple of hours down we reached our campsite. The sun was shinning! A first in the last 24 hours or so, everone took out everything wet in a desperate attempt to dry them out. We got things drapped over everything, and even had time for 5 minutes of laying down absorbing the gift of sunshine. Only to be rudly awakened by a quickly aproaching storm. We scrambled to pitch our tents and get things inside, but the damage was already done. Things were wet....again. We tried to make dinner and eat, but it was hard being wet and cold.
We took off early the next day, determined to make this 4 day trek into a 3 day trek, we had a long day ahead of us. It started without breakfeast, and soon became a wrong turn on the trail. Actually the trail sort of stopped and we kept going. We knew we were heading in the right direction along this flat, luch green valley, so we felt like everything was ok. There were many small strems in this valley, and soon they combined to form a river. About 200 meters or so after this happened, we realized the trail was on the other side of the river. Not wanting to turn back, we treked across the other side of the lake into which the river flowed. Blazing our own trail was extremely difficult, upon reaching the other side of the lake, we realized the river continued.....but after a little searching we found a great gift...a bridge!! It saved us! We figured that it took at least an hour or two out of our day...but relieved of our recent turmoil, and back on the trail everyone felt good. Still determined to finish on this 3rd day, we continued on. We hiked 10 hours this day down steep hills, in mud, sand, rock, gravel, and water there were amazing sights to be had along the way. Just when we were making good progress one of the girls went down, turning her ankle and brusining her knee. Everyone stopped for the verdict. Waiting in suspense as her pain subsided to hear her diagnosis. She concluded she could keep going, pack and all. I was relieved, we only had a couple of hours left, but every step of the way is tough.
Making it to town seemed almost surreal. Only a few houses, the people were friendly and showed us the way to the ´collectivo´which is essentially a taxi. A nerve wreking 1 hour drive on high mountain dirt roads followed. I was nervous, but we soon reached the town where we caught a bus to Huaraz. Two hours of 60 mph on pot hole ridden roads, made for another nerve wrecker, considering your pack...with everything in it, was tied to the roof in about 30 seconds. I mostly spent my time watching out the back window, waiting for it to fall off! Luckily it didn´t, and our trip was complete. A hot shower awaited at the hostel, and a well deserved dinner and drinks were had by all to celebrate.
I must say this was by far the coolest expierence I have had here so far. I will never forget the sights and feelings of triumph during this trek.
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