Trekking through Ancash

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of being able to visit the Cordillera Blanca, a prominent mountain range of Peru. The Andes Mountains run through all of western South America and constitute a huge segment of Peru’s geography. The highest segment would have to be in the department of Ancash, situated around its capital, Huaraz with its highest peak Huascaran reaching a height more than 6,000 meters. I went with a group a six people to explore some of the trekking that Ancash has to offer. After doing a little research and hearing good things from other volunteers and from sources online as well, we decided on the Santa Cruz Trek of 4 days 3 nights. So we all readied our equipment, or in my case borrowed from friends, and set off to Huaraz to start the journey. One of the members of our group got there a day early and did some research and found an agency (one of seemingly hundreds) to rent some equipment we needed. We decided on a small propane burner, pots/pan/utensils, cooking tent in case of rain, a guide and got some burros to haul it for us. On the day before the trek we went to finalize our order and pick up our stuff. We sat down and proceeded to chat a little while with the owner. He asked what trek we were doing, what we were interested and whatnot, and after hardly 5 minutes we changed our minds completely. Instead of the more traveled and well known Santa Cruz trek, we decided on a recently opened and less tested one. The owner assured us that the scenery was much better, and that we would save a ton on the transportation cost because to get to the other trek it would have taken almost 4 hours while this one was 1 hour. So in the end we decided on the trek Akilpo – Ishinca, named for the canyons we trekked up and down, surrounding the peak, Urus.

After leaving the agency we had time to enjoy a nice meal, settle into a hostel and get some rest before starting our trip. We also had to buy all of our food for the next four days and plan out what we were going to eat and who was going to cook each meal. The next morning we got up, went to the agency, packed our van and set off. We met up with our guide and his two sons at the start of the trek about an hour away from Huaraz, and loaded up our donkeys and headed off. The first day was a short hike of about 3 hours uphill to some glacier lakes where we set up our tents. We had time to do a little fishing, and start a bonfire (both of which proved unsuccessful). We then went to bed early to wake up at the crack of dawn for the next day’s excursion. The second day we backtracked a little and then started up another stretch along the Akilpo Canyon. This day was about 6 and half hours of hiking to where we set up camp in a great spot right next to a river, situated in an old mountain hacienda. This time we were able to successfully start a fire with the help of our guide’s son and enjoyed the warmth extensively. I’m not sure exactly how cold it got each night but it was well below freezing and my sleeping bag turned into more of a cocoon. On the third day we continued our ascent up the canyon to reach the pass between two of the peaks and to where we would start our journey back. After about 3 hours of climbing we reached the mountain pass and were greeted by about 2 and half feet of snow. The top layer had frozen enough to provide some stability but more just a false sense of security. After about 50 feet I began to start sinking in up to my waist and had to trudge through the rest of it. After reaching the top we ‘skied’ down the other side until we got back to the rocky terrain. From there we had a long descent down the mountain to reach our last and final camping destination. We arrived to find our donkeys unloaded and cooking tent already set up. Our guide’s sons had already started cooking us a nice late lunch.

The fourth and final day we made our descent to end up in the town where our guide lived and where a car was awaiting us to take us back to Huaraz. At this point we had to wait for our donkeys to catch up with all of our stuff and to pay our guide and the donkey driver. We had previously come to an agreement with the owner of the agency on a price yet were given a different, higher one, when we finished. After stating our case we were then told that the price for the guides they quoted us was for the trek we were originally planning, and that this trek typically charged more for its guides. However, even after the sudden price hike it was still reasonable and the trip was more than worth it overall. I got to see a vast variety of topography and fauna and would recommend it anyone.