Remember when I wrote about the crazy hike we did in Cajas National Park? Scratch that...we did the craziest hike up-to-date in Huaraz yesterday.
The city of Huaraz, Peru sits the in a mountain range called the Cordillera Blanca. There are over 50 snowcapped peaks of 5700 meters or higher and this area is famous for its beautiful, but challenging trekking.
We didn't have enough time or the right equipment to do a multiple day trek so we decided to do a day hike up to Lake Churrup for the day. We hired a guide through our hostel because we had read that there were some dangerous parts to this trail. Given our inexperience with hiking in the mounitains we thought it best to have an experienced guide.
Lake Churrup sits at an elevation of 4500 meters which is about 14,763 feet...pretty high. We started from a little bit above Huaraz which sits at 3091 meters . We figured we should be able to handle the altitude because we hadn't had any problems in the area around Quito which was similar altitude. Note for later in the story - we didn't take into account that we had been at sea level for about a month and had only arrived in Huaraz two days earlier.
The day started out great! The sun was shining (which doesn't happen often this time of year...it's the wet season in the mountains) and our guide, Coqi (there's no "U" after the "Q", it's a different language), seemed like a really nice guy.
We caught a mini bus to an indiginous area about a half hour outside of town and started walking on a dirt road. Both Brandon and I were a little bummed because we had pictured something a little more challenging than walking uphill on a road. Our wishes would soon be answered...
After about two hours on the road we reached the trail that lead up to Lake Churrup. We stopped for a quick snack and made friends with a local dog who accompanied us all the way to the lake.
At first, the trail was rocky and mostly uphill. Our hearts were beating hard, but we were able to handle the incline as long as we kept a slow, steady pace. After about and hour of climbing we started to feel the effects of the altitude in a serious way. Both of us had headaches and Brandon's legs began to get really heavy. We couldn't have been in abnormally bad shape because even the dog was winded and looked a bit tired. We would stop to drink a bit of water and catch our breath every now and again which helped immensely.
About an hour after that is when the trail got really gnarly...well, the trail actually disappeared. At this point, Coqi informed us that we basically had to scale the rocks beside the waterfall in order to make it up to the lake. To complicate the situation, mother nature decided to add in a dash of rain. Needless to say, at this point, we could see the value in hiring a guide. At least there would be somebody there to get us help when we fell off of the side of a 60 meter waterfall.
So we started up the side of this waterfall and, impressively, the dog came with us. We were basically rock climbing (using all fours) without safety gear to get to this lake. At one point, the dog even got to a point where she couldn't get out of and our guide had to assist her up the mountain.
Luckily, we made it to the top of the waterfall and were able to get a glimpse of the lake before the skies really opened up on us. The view was fantastic!..but our headaches persisted so we decided to start back down only after about 20 minutes at the top.
The way down the waterfall was more sketchy than the climb because you were staring at how far you would fall if you miss-stepped or slipped. Once we cleared the waterfall, the hike down was a much welcomed break to the cardiovascular system, but the constant downhill was a bit hard on the knees and legs.
When we finally returned to the road to catch the mini bus back to town, we had hiked 18 kilometers, and climbed about 1 kilometer of altitude in about 8 hours walking. By the time we got to the mini bus we were walking like we had arthritis. Coqi made us feel better when he told us that Lake Churrup was the most difficult day hike in the area and we had actually done it in pretty good time.
After gorging ourselves with pizza and water we caught the overnight bus to Lima...we've never slept so soundly on a bus.
The city of Huaraz, Peru sits the in a mountain range called the Cordillera Blanca. There are over 50 snowcapped peaks of 5700 meters or higher and this area is famous for its beautiful, but challenging trekking.
We didn't have enough time or the right equipment to do a multiple day trek so we decided to do a day hike up to Lake Churrup for the day. We hired a guide through our hostel because we had read that there were some dangerous parts to this trail. Given our inexperience with hiking in the mounitains we thought it best to have an experienced guide.
Lake Churrup sits at an elevation of 4500 meters which is about 14,763 feet...pretty high. We started from a little bit above Huaraz which sits at 3091 meters . We figured we should be able to handle the altitude because we hadn't had any problems in the area around Quito which was similar altitude. Note for later in the story - we didn't take into account that we had been at sea level for about a month and had only arrived in Huaraz two days earlier.
The day started out great! The sun was shining (which doesn't happen often this time of year...it's the wet season in the mountains) and our guide, Coqi (there's no "U" after the "Q", it's a different language), seemed like a really nice guy.
We caught a mini bus to an indiginous area about a half hour outside of town and started walking on a dirt road. Both Brandon and I were a little bummed because we had pictured something a little more challenging than walking uphill on a road. Our wishes would soon be answered...
After about two hours on the road we reached the trail that lead up to Lake Churrup. We stopped for a quick snack and made friends with a local dog who accompanied us all the way to the lake.
At first, the trail was rocky and mostly uphill. Our hearts were beating hard, but we were able to handle the incline as long as we kept a slow, steady pace. After about and hour of climbing we started to feel the effects of the altitude in a serious way. Both of us had headaches and Brandon's legs began to get really heavy. We couldn't have been in abnormally bad shape because even the dog was winded and looked a bit tired. We would stop to drink a bit of water and catch our breath every now and again which helped immensely.
About an hour after that is when the trail got really gnarly...well, the trail actually disappeared. At this point, Coqi informed us that we basically had to scale the rocks beside the waterfall in order to make it up to the lake. To complicate the situation, mother nature decided to add in a dash of rain. Needless to say, at this point, we could see the value in hiring a guide. At least there would be somebody there to get us help when we fell off of the side of a 60 meter waterfall.
So we started up the side of this waterfall and, impressively, the dog came with us. We were basically rock climbing (using all fours) without safety gear to get to this lake. At one point, the dog even got to a point where she couldn't get out of and our guide had to assist her up the mountain.
Luckily, we made it to the top of the waterfall and were able to get a glimpse of the lake before the skies really opened up on us. The view was fantastic!..but our headaches persisted so we decided to start back down only after about 20 minutes at the top.
The way down the waterfall was more sketchy than the climb because you were staring at how far you would fall if you miss-stepped or slipped. Once we cleared the waterfall, the hike down was a much welcomed break to the cardiovascular system, but the constant downhill was a bit hard on the knees and legs.
When we finally returned to the road to catch the mini bus back to town, we had hiked 18 kilometers, and climbed about 1 kilometer of altitude in about 8 hours walking. By the time we got to the mini bus we were walking like we had arthritis. Coqi made us feel better when he told us that Lake Churrup was the most difficult day hike in the area and we had actually done it in pretty good time.
After gorging ourselves with pizza and water we caught the overnight bus to Lima...we've never slept so soundly on a bus.
No comments:
Post a Comment