Huayhuash Trek (Part 2)

Introduction

As a true born & bred Singaporean, before this trek, two things were surely alien to me:

1) Cold, snow & hail

2) Unforgiving mountain terrain

During the middle part of my trek, these would become second nature to me as mother nature revealed a large extend of her capabilities to me. However, it is within the midst of such harsh environments that I suppose the region was shaped to become one of surreal beauty.

Day 4

In terms of a physical toll, day 4 was the hardest of the trek. The amount of ascent and the steepness of each section totally wiped me out. The day started with a climb up to the ridgeline between 2 lakes, which gave me goosebumps as I turned 360 degrees around me. After which, we had a tough 2 hour ascent to the a viewpoint of another 2 lakes. This path really knocked the wind out of me but did boast one of the most famous views (on instagram) of the trek.

At this point, I felt that we had finished the toughest climb of the day… how wrong was I. To me, the toughest high pass of the trek was next. A never ending zig zag up the face of the pass, coupled with narrow and unstable ground gave my body an absolute ass-kicking. And guess what? At the top, the mountain shoved a ton of wind in our direction, leaving me to scramble for the rocks in order to get some form of shelter.

The final part of the day involved a very long descent downwards, taking us pass several colourful hills/mountains. According to my guide, in 30 years or so, these could potentially be the next rainbow mountains in Peru!

Day 5

Welcome to winter wonderland! During the night before, the heavens opened up and blessed us with a blanket of snow. Moreover, a thick fog descended on our path for the day… in fact the snow was thick enough that I never saw a path during the first half of the day. It was a first for me, and I was left in wonder as I walked through the totally white landscape.

We had to cross another high pass on this day, and would provide the highest elevation yet. While we were glad to have made it to the top, mother nature would not let us rest on our laurels. Instead, she would pelt us with hail while sending heavy winds our way. As such, we hurried down from the top but soon found ourselves in shin deep snow with little visibility.

Fortunately, with some patience, we made it far enough down to get away from the fog and found an amazing view of yet another lake under the cover of the clouds. Despite being really cold, I enjoyed the unveiling of this scene and actually had a sandwich just above the lake.

However, we were not done for the day, and had to trek another 2 hours down loose soil and sand to our campsite. I fell hard on the way down, leaving me slightly frustrated at the difficult terrain that seemed to challenge me at every turn. For the first time, I found myself doubting my ability to complete the trek as I was simply so uncoordinated and scared each time we hit ice, loose soil or faced strong wind and snow.

Day 6

The 6th day of our trip gave me one of two best experiences on my trip. We started the day by climbing up a high pass in snow. Slowly zig-zagging up a face of the pass, my lungs burned feverishly while I struggled to maintain my concentration on putting each foot thoroughly into the snow. The view at the top was absolutely amazing, with the beautiful sunlight piercing through some clouds. I definitely shall let my pictures do the talking on this one.

The atmosphere of the pass was amazing, and up to now, I can picture and almost feel the environment perfectly in my mind. The absence of a crowd and having walked in the place, gave me a way better experience than many other commercial sites. I can say with confidence, that it is for sights like these that I continue to pull myself through each difficult trek.

Day 7

On our itinerary, day 7 was the highlight of the trip as we were heading to where the events of the movie, ‘Touching the Void’ (documentary), occurred. It was stunning to see and comprehend just how insane Joe Simpson’s escape from death was back then. The distance that he had to cover with a broken leg coupled with bad terrain really put my trek into a new perspective. Surely, if a broken & dehydrated man could find the will to push on for several days to get to camp, I could find some strength to get through each day.

Day 7 also included our climb to the highest altitude of our trek, at Cerro Grande Vista. I found the climb to be thoroughly exhausting as I continually lost ground due to the loose sand and steep slopes. At the top, we had to scramble across several rocks in order to get to the viewpoint. I am not proud to say this, but a ton of doubt entered my mind and fear almost took over me. Thankfully, we got to the viewpoint before I was overtaken by negativity.

On the way down, I got really frustrated as I kept loosing balance on the slopes. To make things worse, as I striped layers of clothing off, I left my camera near the top. At the midpoint, my teammate noticed me without my camera and pointed it out to me.

What happened next, I still find amusing and hazy in memory. I basically ran up the entire hill with considerable rage pouring out. Tired and annoyed with myself, I got back my camera but was completely out of breadth and devoid of energy. At this point, I guess there was two choices:

a) give up and whine like a loser

b) find a second wind and somehow kick my own ass into action

I chose the latter, and for whatever reason, sang Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer while rushing downwards, all my fear dissipating as the song gave me a boost of courage. Additionally, it greatly amused my teammates and gave them a good laugh to see a crazy dude singing, out breadth and out of tune, while running down.

In many ways, this would come to be one of the defining moments of my time in Peru.

What’s Next

I will be concluding my series on the Huayhuash Trek in my next blog post. Stay tuned!