14er

Sábado, 12-Julio-2014

There's a pretty famous glacier near Huancayo which our group wants to hike next weekend. Only problem is that the altitude makes the climb really hard. Out of 12 people in the other group who tried last weekend, only 5 make it to the glacier. 

Dr Franćois offered to help us acclimate by taking us on a hike to the top of one of the surrounding mountains (middle peak in pic). He told us it was a difficult unmarked hike but Erin, Casey, and I decided to give it a try. 

We took a taxi to Torre Torre and began our hike from there. Already I felt winded just trying to walk up the steep incline of a road. I knew it was going to a long haul to the top...

The road ended and Franćois continued into the trees and so we followed. He warned us that there was no trail but I didn't really believe him until now. We were literally foraging our own path to summit this mountain. 

It took 3 hours of straight climbing but we finally made it to the peak! In those 3 hours, we hiked up 850 meters (2800 feet) and reached a max of 4130 m above sea level (13,600 feet). I literally thought I was going to die a couple times but we were all struggling. The hardest part was trying to catch your breath bc the air continued to get thinner the more we climbed. 

From the peak, we were able to see the Huaytapallana (why-tapa-yanna) glacier! It's beautiful!

We also were met with a surprise heard of llamas and alpacas!! The llamas have a more pointy face whereas the alpaca have a chubby-baby looking face. I didn't bring my big camera on the hike since Franćois told us there was nothing cool to see (wrong!!) and to pack light. Fortunately I had my baby camera so I slowly creeped my way close to the herd and was able to get within 15 feet before the brown llama got scared and ran away. 

We decended down the back of the mountain and literally had to rock climb down! Franćois did not have a plan for where to go so when we reached this cliff he didn't even hesitate and just started to descend down. He is so awesome and oh btw he's 77 years old!! What a boss!

We made it down the north face of the mountain and found a small trail. Franćois asked for general directions from a local who was herding some donkeys carrying potatoes up the trail. We had about 1.5 hours until we reached the town according to the donkey man. 

Our decent down the mountain involved cutting through farmland, people's property, and forging more paths. We passed some farmers on lunch break and saw lots of cool animals. 

Finally we made it to a small road which ran through a couple small towns. I'm so glad that we went with Franćois because I would have never seen this side of Huancayo. The simple lives that people live here is so respectable and amazing! 

The road finally dead ended into an actual road where we caught a taxi to go home. The entire journey took 5.5 hours and I was dead the rest of the day!

Oh and the reason this post is titled "14er" is because that's some Colorade slang that Erin taught us. We summitted a mountian that was nearly 14,000 feet tall and so we accomplished a 14er! 

**Also my awkward tan lines continue, except this one probably tops all others I've had. Guess I'm gonna be a red socks fan for the rest of the summer...