Peru Adventure, Day 52 Oct 14 was predicted to be a tough day by Antonio and he wasnt kidding. It was worth every tough step. Images are imprinted in my brain that I hope never go away. Im never going to be a mountaineer but if I was young enough, like say 60ish, and tough enough, like say an active Ultrarunner, Id want to get in shape to climb some of what I saw today. We were camped on the cusp of a large glacier fed lake and started our trek mostly clockwise level high around the lake with glaciated peaks first to our right and then facing us. It was hard to keep my eyes on the trail. Hiking was pretty easy for an hour or so as the mountains beckoned. There wasnt going to be a place to stop for a cooked lunch so our cook, Nazario, soon caught up to Antonio and I with the fixings and he got a real hiking treat. We had clear blue skies with wispy clouds catching the glaciated peaks. As we moved clockwise around the lake the peaks got nearer and my eyes got narrower. There were so many glaciated peaks my eyes couldnt take them in all at once and my camera wished for a fisheye lens. Mountaineers, dont come here unless you are ready to climb. If you arent ready youll never forgive yourself. As we left the lake and passed left around the mountain ridge the trail went up. Not that bad really but it was a change and what we wanted to see was now over our right shoulder and not the trail in front of our feet. Up and up we went on good trail and the coca was starting to wear off. Up was getting hard and Antonio promised lunch not too far ahead. It seemed too far and we were only 3.7 hours in after the first two days totaling less than 5 hours. What saved the hike was the series of alpine lakes far below. Gorgeous blue long lakes each a step above/below the other. Four in all as recall. Up I went short step followed by short step ad infinitum. Finally Antonio found a wind protected fairly flat spot and Nazario broke out a box lunch I could hardly believe. How did he carry all this stuff? Hot coca tea for all. Cooked chicken with sides of vegetables and starch. Fruit. I can only remember it was too much and took nearly an hour to eat. After lunch the trail really got steep. As reinvigorated as I was it was really short step time once again. The series of deep blue lakes were far below and I wanted up. 5:48 hours from the start we hit the 15,600 foot pass when the longest previous hike was less than 5 hours. I was both relieved and sorry to leave the high jagged glaciated peaks behind. And then down we three went to 14,400 in almost 3 hours. It was not an easy descent but a very satisfying one. 8.5 hours hiking with more beauty before me than I can recount. Vida es mui buena.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 19:15:39 +0000
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