Over the high pass

After a few days rest in Huaraz we set off to do a three day trek, up Quebrada Quilcayhuanca, over a high pass, then back down Quebrada Cojup.

The first day was relatively easy to start with, winding up through the valley, climbing gently through the meadows.

Easy walking,  early in the day.  Our trail would take us up the left hand valley

At the end of this valley we climbed up and up and up a steep zig zag track on the far left

We picked up a friend along the way, a shaggy mountain dog who started walking with us and then didn't turn back. He was a great help with wildlife – he chased an Andean fox (too far for a photo!), kept the cattle out of our campsite and was a reliable pathfinder. He was also very helpful at cleaning up any extra food.

Camp was made in a little valley at 4400m, just as the sun was starting to go behind the peaks. It was a cold night, so cold that all our water bottles froze and the temperature dropped to -4 degrees in the tent.

Wearing all my clothes and still rather chilly, but an outstanding location

Our furry friend hoping for some dinner.  Luckily for him Ben dropped some salami and then he got leftovers

The trail continued to climb the next day, sporadically marked by rock cairns. The pass was just over 5000m, high up on the scree and with quite a bit of snow. We didn't linger too long, just took in the incredible vista of mountains all around.

Getting close to the snow and the pass

Finally the top!  All the peaks looking south

Anna, very pleased to have made it to the top of the 5050m pass

Ben, also pleased to have made it to the top, but little did he know about the extreme descent coming up.
Northern peaks behind him.

The descent was much harder than the climb. It was very steep and plunged almost straight down the valley wall. We were very glad for our walking poles to take some of the weight and give more stability. Our mountain dog helpfully pointed out deer for us – we would never have seen them on our own.

The descent.  The path went pretty much straight down . . .

After 3hrs of leg destroying descent we made it to the valley floor. A further 45min bought us to a nice level grass area, perfect for camp.

Our mountain dog abandoned us to some other trekkers the next morning as they set off earlier than we did. The walk that day was downhill and easy but felt punishingly long – the 'end' of the valley always seemed to be just around the corner but it was further than it looked. Finally we made it to the park gates, but knew that it was at least another 2 hours down to the nearest village that a collectivo would go to. There was a tricky bit of pathfinding to make sure we were on the right track according to our photocopied trip description, but the man made stream was unmistakable once we found it. From there it was down past the Way Inn Lodge then quite steeply down towards Llupa.

Looking back up the Cojup valley.  The pass is just to the right of the right hand snow covered peak.

When we came out onto the road near Llupa we waited for the collectivo with an old man, who quizzed us on where we were from, what we had been doing and then told us how dangerous mountaineering was. Even though I explained in my limited Spanish that we'd only been walking, he was very insistent.

After an hour and a quarter of waiting the collectivo finally arrived and we returned to Huaraz tired but happy and looking forward to a hot shower, tasty dinner and a warm bed.