The Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit Days 7, 8 & 9
The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa
(This story begins here: The Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit Days 1 & 2)
Day 7 – 1700 meter ascent / 1350 meter decent / xx km / 9 hrs
Very cold night. Am happy to see daylight. Leave at 6.40am, up to Mirador San Antonio by 8am. Wow. Unbelievable. Never imagined would be here to see all this – site of Joe Simpson’s ‘Touching The Void’. Siula Grande spectacular.
On real trail at 9am, make great time on flat. Pack feels very good, like normal hiking weight. Arrive at town of Huayllapa at 1pm expecting 1hr climb to campsite. Push on and on, uphill whole time for 2.5hrs without lunch. Utterly exhausted. Hardest day yet. Zero energy. In bed before dark.
Feet wet & worse. Boots literally falling apart.
Siula Grande (6260m) - Joe Simpson's mountain
"Touching the Void"
Loving the view at Mirador San Antionio
The immense views
Sunset at the Tapuish campsite
Day 8 – 500 meter ascent / 1200 meter decent / xx km / 7.5 hrs
Cold again overnight. Hours awake. On trail at 7am. Push past first pass (Punta Tapuish, 4800m) in good time. Through valley to second (Punta Yaucha, 4840m). Not too steep. Again good time. Finally keeping up with suggested times in guide. Lunch on top. Down lush valley to familiar campsite (Laguna Yahuacocha from day 1).
Somehow easy day. Feel good. Feet same.
Last night feels strange.
View from Punta Yaucha (4840m)
Day 9 – 700m ascent / 600m descent / xx km / 4.5 hrs
Good sleep. Out at 7am. 2.5hrs up to Pampa Llamac Pass (4300m), 2hrs down to Llamac. Jeep safe.
Final victory Oreo with bag of chips and cold Coke.
Exhausted & jubilant.
Laguna Yahuacocha from above
-Dan
Hey Dan,
Loving your blog and following your trip. I’m not too far away from you on a similar (less adventurous) trip of my own. http://www.rachelpook.com
Keep it up!
Best
Rachel
Very cool, fallowing Theroux´s route.
I haven´t got my hands on a copy of that book yet, though I´m keeping an eye out.
All the best on your adventure, it looks amazing!
-Dan
Dan I was going to dress up like you for Halloween, but I was not quite rugged enough. One day years from now you will be able to sit back and tell the stories of your trip and you will never have to feel bad for not obtaning your goals. Are you sure you dont need a navagatior?
Haha, You´d probably need to spend some time growing dreads too
Stories I have, that´s for sure!
Hey Dan,
congratulations on this hike and your success.
The scenery is just stunning and unbelievably awesome. I assume this helped a lot to move forward and to forget about sore feet?
As it is late in the year and peak season is over, how many people were on the trail?
Regards,
Frank
Hey Frank,
Absolutely, the scenery was a great motivator. That, and I really had no choice other than to keep going – by mid trail I was in the middle of nowhere, the only access is on foot
I didn´t see many people at all, only a handfull a day, but I´m told in peak season there are at least 15-20 groups of at least 15-20 people, not even counting the small operators.
Ouch!
Dan,
Happy Halloween Dude!!!