Huayhuash - The trek, part 1

The group from Left to right

Kimberly - Super fast trekker and super human consumer of vast quantities of food!
Isabelle - Also pretty swift on her feet
Chris - Super Techie
Carloine - The lovely wife of Chris
Antti - The finnish metal head
Julie - Always cold but cool
Tom - Aka David Bailey
Annalie - My tent mate
Alain - The cuban massive

So, at 4.30am we were all gathered at the office of Huascaran, the trekking company, ready for the long drive out to the Cordillera Huayhuash. The Huayhuash is the mountain range in the Andes just south of Huaraz and the more famous Cordillera Blanca. Huayhuash (pronounced "why wash?"), possibly for the fact its 10 days without many chances to bathe but certainly for the rabbit like animals that are only found in this region.
We arrived at the small village of Pocpa (3400m) about 5 hours later. Our guide Epi, was joined by Miguel the cook and 2 donkey men, Nicole and Samuel. After the donkeys were loaded up we started our trek up into the hills. Our lunch of delicious and fresh trout cerviche was accomanied by an earth quake, which was just the first in a series of events that would make this an interesting, emotional and challenging trek!
When I say earth quake, the mountains didn´t start falling around us, but the earth definately shook, and we found out when we got back that what we had felt was the after shock of a factor 7 earthquake a bit further north.

Our camp the first night was at Matacancha (4100m), it was noticably warmer than the Ausangate trek, but I was still very glad of my new down jacket. I had woken up that morning with very swollen tonsils and I was hoping that a good nights sleep and a paracetamol would sort me out....but this was not to be.

Day 2. Waking up feeling really run down and with an incredibly sore and dry throat, we started up our first pass of 4700m. The mountains were quite spectacular in their forms. Layers of great slices of  rock that in some cases were bent into curves from the movement of the earth over millions of years. As we came to the top of the pass we were lucky enough to have a good view of condors circling around the peaks. I had prescibed myself some antibiotics to try and deal with the swollen tonsils as quickly as possible. At such  high altitudes, walking and breathing is so much harder and any ailment is greatly magnified in such harsh conditions. I found the going really tough.

Day 3. We woke to breakfast in the sunshine. Lots of amazing views and a scramble up to pass of 4750m. After lunch and a short siesta on the grass we walked down to some small rural homesteads and a beautiful lagoon. Although there were some small houses we also saw thatched kennels, some dog sized and some human sized, and this was in fact exactly what they were. The houses were just for cooking and storage it seemed.

Our campsite was by a beautiful lagoon with stunning mountain views. A couple of local children ventured down to play games with us. Antti and Julie were both feeling ill and had gone straight to their tent. After dinner Tom was using his very professional camera equipment to try and get a night time shot of the camp  site with the mountains and stars in the background. We got Chris and Carloine to light up their tent with their head torches. I had a go at a picture of my  own and was very pleased with the result!

 

Day 4. Antti had been really sick all night and emerged from his tent looking like the grim reaper, pale and drawn, from a night of severe vomiting and diarrhoea. This was meant to be one of the toughest days of the trek, 8 hours and with a 4750m pass. It was, I have to say the most stunning walk I have ever done. I thought that if the trek continued to be this good that it would probably rank in my top 2 treks if not number 1. We made a side trip to a glacial lake which was indescribably breathtaking. There were views of the mountain Siula Grande, which if you have seen the film touching the void, is where it all happened. As we were sitting at the top of the moraine looking down onto the most amazing blue lakes at the bottom of the glacier, great cracking and booming noises would echo around the valley as chunks of the glacier broke off and caused avalanches into the lakes below us.

 

Once we had reached the pass the landscape changed dramatically and we found ourselves walking down into a deep green valley, with lots of streams and great mushroom like humps of  a plant that grows very very slowly only above 4500m and I really should know the name of it, but I cant remember!

Antti had struggled through the day and we all eventually made it to our camp for the evening. The general mood of the group was more subdued with Annalie also not feeling well and not having eaten much all day.

Day 5. Annalie had been really sick all night, just managing to crawl out of the tent to throw up, after which she was confronted by a dog waiting to eat what she had just deposited. The dog was christened "vomit the dog". I woke to find Chris and Alain were not feeling too great either. We had another pass of 4750m and the group was mainly a bit slow and tired until we reached camp and the prospect of hot thermal springs! Those of us who were well enough to make it to the pools had a really fantastic dip. There were 2 pools, the first, scalding hot, where you could wash with soap and shampoo, the second just nice and warm to relax in and marvel at the views. Our spirits revived after such a nice treat and it was great to feel warm and clean.