Nevado Hualca – 21,079 feet Dec. 10th & 11th
I had been working for a mining company in Arequipa as a logistics manager for a year when my instructor hired me to go to Pampamarca to work with a group of mountaineers setting up a base camp for the season. There I met Carlos, and we had a chance to go on a climb together. I really enjoyed working with him and the other instructors, Carlos is married and had been in the USA since 1987, so he spoke very little English (I don’t speak Spanish). We had a good friendship from the time I met him until I went to Peru to teach.
I was thinking that the high altitude would be too much for me, but Carlos insisted on going as well, even though he was older and obviously much more experienced in mountaineering. I did have problems with altitude and could not really stand the feeling of heights. Once we reached a place called Lagochuanus, I got really cold, so was hiding behind a rock when he decided to come out of the shelter to warm up. I was excited because I had never seen anyone go ” GOLD” on the mountain, but there were too many rocks on the trail to spot anything interesting. As we walked, I was trying to catch his eye to get a photo, but he was already walking so I could not raise my camera to take a shot. Finally we reached the top of the canyon and I got really excited because I had never gone to this area before. The first thing I saw as we approached the canyon was the high passes, on the level of what we had just seen the day before. There were some farm houses below and I realized that my husband and I were next to a “road” that went straight up to the high passes. I got really excited and ridersy, wanting to find the road and make it down safely.
After a couple of photos, we decided to ride our bikes down to the bottom of the canyon. We could see where the road was for a long long time, but it was not easy to find. Finally after about an hour or so, we saw a sign saying that we were on the right road, so we went down that. It was a really beautiful and lush green canyon bottom, with lots of trees. Normally I can drive along the road and park at the road crossings, but unfortunately there were no signs this time. We parked on the side of the road and went looking for the trailhead. After a couple of minutes searching, we saw a high break in the road. My husband said “We’re going to the wrong trail, there’s no way we can go down that”. We drove around for a while and soon saw the trailhead for the PCT.equipped with all the gear we needed. At that moment we knew we were ready to go. It was the end of the “nap” and we could hardly wait to get started. Our B.O.B. was waiting for us at the trailhead.
The first day was a low-energy hike along the trail with about 2,000 feet of elevation. That was enough for us to decide to go for another day. On the way down we met up with some trekkers who were already on their return from the summit. We happily got a few pictures together, said our farewells then we continued to venture on. The trail itself was not too bad, just a very narrow vertical climb with a couple of very steep switchbacks. At that part we also saw a beautiful valley where the sides were covered with beautiful western flowers. When we got to the bottom, it was a Platform #3 at about 50 feet and we decided to camp there.
The next day we were more energetic and we went all the way down to Cabanaconde to have lunch at the headquarters of the C Conversation Canyoneering Club. We sat near the water and were very excited to see this very famous rock wall climbing site located just a few miles from where we were staying. The summit of Cabanaconde gave us a 360 degree view of the surrounding Ubarian area and we could even see the Prepuvert peaks in the distance. A very strong wind came up making us feel very weary. We proceeded to have lunch at the base of the wall where there are very nice views to the south over to the Caribbean. A very different scene than the previous day when we went to the top of the wall and then came back down to the rim.
After about an hour of eating and getting refreshed, we decided to head back. The road down was very slow going down but you eventually made it to the road by yourself.