1st Week in Peru

Alex and I arrived in Huaraz on April 26th and it has been nothing short of a whirlwind! We arrived at our hostel at 6am due to our overnight bus that we took from Lima. The guys here at Hostel Alkipo pointed us to David of QuechuaAndes, an outdoor guide company, to figure out some areas to go climbing. Turned out, him and his wife Mary are writing the guidebook for the entire country; none exists right now! We had an instant in to the local climbing scene and it definitely has paid off.

We instantly got hooked up with this guy named Roosevelt and we were able to go bouldering with him and some of his friends on a few boulders near Huaraz. The boulders are here are sandbagged, FOR SURE! It could be the altitude but still, the holds are small and the movements are difficult. Bouldering above 10,000 ft is quite the workout, believe me! After a couple days, we needed to rest our muscles and after talking with David and Mary, we were on our way to Lago 69 in 'Parque Nacional Huascaran', apparently one of the best and scenic hikes in the region. 

Lake Chinancocha near the entrance of Parque Nacional Huascaran on the way to Lago 69

We took a private shuttle with lots of other people from other hostels in Huaraz at 6am and head towards the National Park which took over 2 hours to drive due to the road conditions. We stopped to take photos at the first lake, Chinancocha, which is Woman Lake in Quechua. There is a second lake just up hill called Orconcocha, which means Man Lake. The female lake is MUCH prettier than the male lake... it's usually the case. :) The scenery was breathtaking; jagged mountains on either side, glaciers running down all sides, and lush green meadows and streams pouring into the Llanganuco Valley. 

Chacraraju Mt. in all of its glory; Lago 69 is at the base of the left flank

Lake 69 sits just above 15,000 ft and we were feeling the altitude a little bit. There were so many wildflowers around and you couldn't have asked for a more picturesque background with the lakes super super bright aqua color. As most of you know, steep mountains and glaciers are active places and we saw multiple rock and ice falls in the 2 hours that we were at the lake. Gotta hit those alpine starts! Our hike started at 9:45am and we returned around 3:30pm. We were back in Huaraz around 6:45; time for some food, showers, and some more climbing!

Wildflowers with Lago 69 in the background

Even though we were pretty beat from the long hike the day before, it was time to welcome one of my good friends from Tahoe to Huaraz. I met Roland Romero in Tahoe just over 4 years ago and he was coming out to Huaraz just to see me! He took an overnight bus from Trujillo, northwest of Huaraz and on the coast. We decided to head to this place called Wincacocha, a lagoon in the Cordillera Negra, the mountain range across the river from the Cordillera Blanca. This was short half day hike that would give us amazing views of the mountain range and not break Roland too badly due to his quick change in elevation and lack of sleep due to his overnight bus.

Wincacocha lake

The view was amazing up there; a slight breeze moving the clouds through the sky and being situated roughly at ~3500 m, was another good acclimatization hike. We brought lunch and some Flor de Cana rum for rum & cokes and sat and chatted about lots of things for a couple hours. Around 3pm, the clouds came over us and dropped a decent amount of rain. This is the usual occurence here for the end of the rainy season; sunshine and happiness in the morning up until 1-2pm-ish, then rain for an hour or more, then back to sunshine and clear skies. Luckily I remembered my rain jacket; Roland was not so fortunate!

The Cordillera Blanca, covered by incoming clouds from the east

We took Roland the next day to a climbing spot called Los Olivos for his first time climbing ever! He stuck with it like a champ and climbed a couple routes that we setup for him. Los Olivos is super close to Huaraz; maybe a 10 minute collective ride (sort of like our public bus system in the US). There were also a couple boulder problems there that Alex and I tried. Roland wasn't able to climb towards the end of the day because the first few wrecked him... time to practice practice practice Roland! :)

That night, Roland and Alex were leaving on their separate buses. Roland was heading home because he has work and Alex headed towards Lima to pick up Jen from the airport in Lima. I stayed here in Huaraz in hopes to climb more and meet more locals. I definitely got my wish because David from QuechuaAndes was hosting a local climbing competition at the University climbing wall. He recruited me to help set routes for the competition and I do have to say, the routes were pretty stout!

Climbing wall outside of the Universidad Technilogico

This guy named Anrey Mata won the overall competition, someone who I climbed with the day before at a spot in Marian, a suburb close to Huaraz. He was super strong, including all of his friends and there were able to show me some super sweet projects that I'm hoping to come back to within the coming weeks. The competition had about ~30 participants which included most of the climbers in Huaraz and even some from Lima! I felt pretty privileged to have set the final route for the competition too, including a couple others for the initial rounds. It was quite a bit of work but totally worth it, having met and climbed with most of the locals here in Huaraz. I think the next couple weeks are gonna be SUHweet!!!

 Tomorrow, I'm off to one of the best climbing spots in Peru called Hatun Machay with a french girl named Camila I met in my hostel and a local climber name Octovio. Some of the local climbers think there is a better place to go to; I'll have to scope both out to see for myself. This place is near 14,000 ft!!! Hopefully the altitude does not hinder the climbing too much... I'll be out of internet range until thursday evening so tune in after that to see what Hatun Machay has to offer!!!

Chau for now,

Scotty 'Top-Rope' Mathewson