HUAYHUASH TREKKING SOLO

This hike was done solo from March 28 to April 5, 2018 in complete autonomy. This season is normally considered as end of rainy season in Andes. But for me it looked like there was no end to rain…Nevertheless having 9 days to do the trek and starting from camp Quartelhuain allowed me to time my trip in a way that I was able to see all the highlights of the Huayhuash mountain range and not to get completely soaked everyday.

Acclimatization

Before coming to Huaraz we spend almost one week in vicinity of Cusco doing different hikes at altitude around 3000m +/-500m. Cusco was the first city where we felt effects of high altitude like shortness of breath and lack of physical strength.

Upon our arrival to Huaraz we immediately set off on our two days acclimatization hike to Refugio Peru and Laguna 69. There are plenty of other one day hikes available around Huaraz. Unfortunately, after this hike my wife had to bail on the idea of doing Huayhuash since the altitude was taking it’s toll.

Allow yourself minimum 2-3 days of acclimatization in case you jump from the plane straight into the hike. In Lima, while waiting for a bus to Huaraz we met group of Turkish hikers who was about to do Alpamayo circuit in Cordillera Blanca, 9 days trek. Coincidentally we met them again at Lima airport on our departure, and they told that they had to abandon the trek on 4th day since all of them had different symptoms of altitude sickness, for some it was headache and nausea, for some fatigue.

Day 1. Huaraz – Chiquian – Quartelhuain camp – Janca camp (Mitucocha)

Depending on where you want to start your trek from, you may use Turismo Nazario (Huaraz bus station S9.5319244,W77.532337), which travels to Chiquian and then you have to change the bus and go with them from Chiquian to Llamac and then Pocpa. Ticket from Huaraz to Chiquian costs 15 Soles and from Chiquian to Llamac – 10 Soles.
My plan was to start the hike from Quartelhuain , by getting there on taxi from Chiquian. Day before the hike I bought ticket with El Rapido. Both companies depart Huaraz at 5a.m. Trip to Chiquian takes around 2.5 hours.
My advise is to go with Turizmo Nazario, as I understood later they are the only one able of going further from Chiquian to Llamac, Pocpa and if you speak Spanish it’s possible to even arrange your transfer to Quartelhuain.
Upon arrival to Chiquian I immediately realized that finding taxi wouldn’t be as easy as I thought. Luckily bus driver helped me and talked one of local villagers into bringing me to Quartelhuain for 200 soles. When we passed Pocpa I paid my first fee -15 soles. Finally, after another 2.5 hours bone rattling drive I finally reached my starting point.
It was here that I realized that I was about to do this trek completely alone with no other tourists in sight.
It was around 3pm when I reached my destination for a day – Janca camp, where I paid another 40 soles (includes Janca and Carhuacocha camps). The weather was getting worse and shortly after I set up a tent, it started to rain, the temperature dropped down immediately, I crawled into my sleeping bag drained emotionally and physically and fell asleep till the next morning.

Day stats: 3 hours, 8km walked; ascend – 590m; descend – 520m.

Day 2. Janca camp (Mitucocha) – Carhuacocha

Second day started with the sunny weather, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it because after some time in Peruvian Andes I realized that it starts raining around 2-3pm. So I had limited time to make it to my next camp site, I packed my tent and moved on.
There are a lot of reports of angry shepard dogs on the trail, in fact you will hear a lot of barking at night but I didn’t have problems with them. Instead I’ve got very cute “companero” who joined me for the next two days and I couldn’t be happier to share my food for company.
By the time I reached the campsite and set up my tent it started hailing for couple of hours after which I was rewarded with few minutes of Yerupaja mountain view at dusk.
There are few local families living at Carhuacocha lake and it was here where I was invited for dinner, I was thrilled by gesture, but unfortunately I had to decline to avoid awkwardness of not being able to properly communicate without staring in the vocabulary all the time.

Day stats: 4 hours, 10km walked; ascend – 420m; descend – 500m.

Day 3. Carhuacocha – Huayhuash

This is the day when I was about to see one of the most beautiful places of Huayhuash range – Tres Lagos. But it didn’t start as I’d wish it to, sky was covered in clouds and there were no signs of improvement.
Hoping for the best I set off for one of the hardest days on the trek. Just as I turned around the mountain, I was asked to pay another fee, which was 35 soles this time. Basically, you don’t camp on this part of the trail, but it’s just that this area is so popular with tourists.
After few hours of crawling up I finally reached my photo spot and decided to take a lunch break over there. I don’t know how, but it was pure luck that clouds cleared in patches over the mountains, so I was able to enjoy their beauty. It wasn’t long after I finished my lunch when skies grew darker and it started hailing, it happened as I was reaching Siula pass.
After crossing Siula pass it was around 2 hours downhill jumping over moss field to Huayhuash camp.

Day stats: 6 hours, 14km walked; ascend – 860m; descend – 700m.

Day 4. Huayhuash – Viconga (Atuscancha – Hot springs)

The day started from paying off another fee of 20S to two lovely Peruvian ladies who were visiting their parents up in the mountains. We had a lot of laugh, mostly from my lack of Spanish.
It was a clear and sunny day and as I started walking I had to decide whether to head to Viconga (aka Hot Springs) or to make a shortcut and go via Paso Trapecio which is off the beaten path and offers some amazing mountain views.
My mistake was that I considered Paso Trapecio as a shortcut and not as a highlight, so I went to Viconga, hoping to soak in thermal springs.
At Viconga you have few options where to camp. One is at Viconga camp, and second – just next to hot springs. When I arrived to hot springs I was disappointed to see pools empty and no one around to fill it up for me. So I started to set up my camp hoping to for someone to turn up. But nobody did, probably because I was the only person in the camp that day. Later on I heard that you can even get some beer and snacks in here.
The only people I saw that day were two kiddos playing football with deflated ball and running up and down the hills…altitude sickness…never heard of it. After they had enough with the ball they came to my tent and were curious about all the gear I had in there as I was starting to cook my lunch. I gave them few bars of Snickers and tried to ask them where their parents were, to what they said that there were no parents and they were the only one in this place (well at least this is what I understood with my poco Espanol). Kids didn’t go anywhere and were sitting and starring at everything curiously after I shared my lunch with them. I was little freaked out of them at this point and started to feel like those stranded tourists in the movie of “Children of the corn”.

Day stats: 4.5 hours, 12km walked; ascend – 500m; descend – 500m.

Day 5. Viconga – camp Elephante (Huanapatay)

This is the day where you will cross the highest pass of the standard Huayhuash trek – Paso Cuyoc (5000m), unless you’re planning on diverting to Paso San Antonio (which you definitely should).
Because of the weather I knew that I won’t be able to reach Paso San Antonio and catch its views on the same day. So I decided to stay overnight at camp Elephante just where the climb to San Antonio begins and hope for clear skies in the morning.
Nothing remarkable on this stretch.

Day stats: 4 hours, 8km walked; ascend – 620m; descend – 530m.

Day 6. Camp Elephante (Huanapatay) – Huayllapa

There’s an alternative to Paso San Antonio – Paso Santa Rosa (aka Paso Jurau) laying just about 500 meters to the east, with similarly stunning views it’s supposed to offer more moderate descend than Paso San Antonio.
Unfortunately I took neither of those, my initial plan was to attempt Santa Rosa descend and go to Cutatambo camp, but it was ruined by whole night rain and fog in the morning, so I decided just to climb San Antonio and try to see something through the mist and head down to Huayllapa same way I climbed.
While on top of the pass I was startled by the angle of descend which looked virtually impossible to go down on without special gear. In my situation, doing it alone with no hiking poles on slippery scree slope with heavy backpack was next to suicide.
I would suggest to have at least pair of good hiking poles if you attempt it and be ready to revert at any point of descend. At the end people do it.
After spending some time at the top I went down the same way I came. And it was on my way down when I saw other tourists on the trek for the first time in 6 days. They were just starting their climb. Down the valley I met their arriero with horses and donkeys.
On the way through the valley I met one local boy who was looking after his donkey and straight away he asked me for “dulce” (which means sweets), when I gave him one bar of chocolate, he asked me for another, humbleness…never heard of it.
After, it was 4 hours downhill to Huayllapa. Huayllapa is a village where you can buy additional food (basics like pasta, cheese, sweets and snacks) for the remainder of your trek. When I was there I also saw propane gas canisters stacked in one of the shops. Here you can choose to stay in simple accommodation, just have a shower or a dinner.
I personally stayed in the camp which is also local school playground (40 Soles fee), and opted for a dinner for 10 Soles at one local family.

Day stats: 7.30 hours, 18km walked; ascend – 600m; descend – 1500m.

Day 7. Huayllapa – Gashpampa

It was the warmest but very humid night on the trek due to low altitude. After a good sleep I had big price to pay ahead – regain all the altitude lost the day before with additional load from my soaked tent.
Surprisingly first 700m of ascent weren’t that bad. Overall the way to Paso Tapush was fair but way to long climb.
Immediately after the pass I set my camp for a night.

Day stats: 6.00 hours, 11km walked; ascend – 1330m; descend – 280m.

Day 8. Gashpampa – Jahuacocha

Next morning I woke up shivering from cold, I was wrapped in two thick fleeces and my sleeping bag, but it didn’t help. I was very surprised to see it snowing outside when I crawled out of my tent.
It snowed for couple more hours until I was able to wrap up and start my hike.
By the time I reached Paso Yaucha (4850m) snow started to melt but it was still cloudy. At the top of the Paso there’s and option to take panoramic path (in clear weather) on your left which will follow by steep descend on the approach to Jahuacocha camp. I opted for general route because mountains were covered in clouds and path was slippery. On my way down clouds started to clear up a bit and I took a little detour around small ridge to my right, which opened very nice view on the Tsacre Grande.
It’s crazy but during this trek I became mental trying to catch every glimpse of the sun coming through the clouds. I was literally running to a better spot to take a shot and to enjoy the view until the clouds hide everything again.
After this detour it was long downhill to Jahuacocha camp.

Day stats: 5.00 hours, 9km walked; ascend – 530m; descend – 1000m.

Day 9. Jahuacocha – Llamac – Huaraz

It was early 5am wake up. By 6am I was ready to head down Llamac village.
It was 4 hours fast paced hike towards Llamac, completely covered in fog. After steep switchback downhill I finally arrived to Llamac where I heavily stocked up on chocolate and bananas and prepared for a bus trip.
At Jahuacocha camp I met one local arriero who happened to be one of family members of Turismo Nazario, he helped me to secure my place in the bus from Llamac to Chiquian and showed me where bus departs from (Llamac bus stop S10.197877, W77.032588). Bus leaves at 11am and costs 10 soles, our bus was completely full, but probably they will accommodate everyone willing to go. Bus from Chiquian to Huaraz was empty and costs 15 soles.
After 2 hours ride we arrived to Chiquian where we had 1 hour layover before bus to Huaraz departure (2pm).
There’s another option I was considering – joining one of the tour groups, usually they have spare spaces in their minivans.
After arrival to Huaraz I had a quick shower and landed in one of local pizza places where I replenished on lost calories and carbs with pizza and beer of course waiting for my night bus to Lima. And this was the end of my Huayhuash adventure which I grade as successful. Yes it could’ve been better in terms of weather, but I knew what I signed up for, so no regrets and positive memories.

Day stats: 4.00 hours, 12km walked; ascend – 300m; descend – 1100m.