Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru

PERU Page 4/4:
Cordillera Huayhuash
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Photographs Copyright 2003 by Tom Dempsey. Buy custom prints and files.

Image on Right: On Day 6, we crossed the outlet stream of Lake Carhuacocha (13,600 feet) in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru. The mountain on the left is the second highest in Peru, Yerupaja (21,760 feet above sea level). This image has been published several times.

Peru Index 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4
Page 1: Overview / Cuzco / The Wari People / Inca Conquest / Moray / Salt Pans at Salinas / Lares Trek / Fujimori, Toledo, & the Economy
Page 2: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu ~ Page 3: Cordillera Blanca: Trekking Season & Climate / Chavin / Santa Cruz Trek / Inca Legacies
Page 4 (this page): Cordillera Huayhuash: Altitude Acclimatization / Climate/ Touching the Void / Amazon Source

Mount Jirishanca (20,000 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru

The Cordillera Huayhuash challenged mountaineers in the gripping 2003 British docudrama "Touching the Void" (see Siula Grande image below). Trekking around this stunning mountain range requires physical fitness and altitude acclimatization, but you don't need to be a climber to walk the "Valley Circuit" of the Cordillera Huayhuash.

Left: Mount Jirishanca, or the "Icy Beak of the Hummingbird" (20,000 feet elevation), cuts the sky like a knife in the Cordillera Huayhuash.

     From May 21-28, 2003, I trekked with 10 other men for 55 miles in eight days halfway around the awesome Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru's second highest mountain range. (Cordillera Blanca is higher, at the massive peak of Huascaran). Our route is known as the Backwards 'C', which is a portion of the complete Valley Circuit of the Cordillera Huayhuash. We hiked across the continental divide of the Andes into the remote upper reaches of the Amazon Basin, then back over the divide to a different road head. Donkeys carried our gear and arrieros (donkey drivers) set up camp ahead of us each day, leaving us to carry a light day pack. On average, we walked a moderate 7 miles and ascended/descended 2000 feet each day in beautiful weather. To reach our camps, we crossed six passes over 15,000 feet in elevation above sea level (as high as 15,700 feet). Both the scenery and the thin air took my breath away!
    Before the trek, we spent 3 nights in Huaraz, Peru at 10,000 feet to acclimatize, which was a very smart decision, as no one in our group suffered significant health problems from the altitude. As a day trip from Huaraz, we took a long bus drive over a 15,000-foot pass to visit the ancient ruins of Chavin, Peru, site of an advanced culture which dates from 1000-300 BC (more than a millennia earlier than the short-lived Inca Empire, of 1430-1572 AD).
     On our second day trip from Huaraz, our guides drove us to 13,400 feet in the Cordillera Negra for a scenic hike back down to Huaraz, a distance of 10 miles with 3200 feet descent. To the east, the impressive glacier-covered peaks of the Cordillera Blanca stretched across the horizon.
    Before, during and after our trip in 2003, Peru's teachers, truck drivers, and campesinos held frequent but peaceful strikes. The campesinos (country people) actually blocked most major highways with rocks and felled trees, threatening to block our bus returning to Lima from our Huayhuash Trek, but our energetic guide Koki ran for 9 hours round trip to the nearest phone to confirm that our bus had already driven to our meeting point 2 days early to avoid strikers! President Toledo called a national emergency and cleared the roads, fortunately allowing us to keep our original schedule. I give many thanks to Aventura Quechua (this link leaves my site) for their extra efforts to smoothly guide our group.
     Trekking Tip: If you are looking for an excellent local guide service, contact Aventura Quechua (this link leaves my site, www.aventuraquechua.com ) in Peru, with whom I have trekked in four separate areas (Huayhuash, Machu Picchu, Cordillera Blanca, and Lares/Cuzco) all with excellent service and value.
      Cordillera Huayhuash is not yet a park (although deserves to be), but is currently a Reserved Zone, which recognizes the rights and traditional land use by the eight communities of the area. Please respect the area by informing yourself before going. I recommend the following book for planning & dreaming about a trek, and to identify routes and name peaks during the trip:

"Climbs and Treks in the Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru" by Jeremy Frimer, Copyright 2005, ISBN #0-9733035-5-7, Elaho Publishing, www.elaho.ca
You can buy this book at the following link which leaves my web page: http://www.chesslerbooks.com/eCart/viewItem.asp?idProduct=3018

I recommend the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides Peru (order from Amazon.com) for initially planning your Peru trip and for a handsome souvenir, best left at home due to heavy glossy paper. The many images and concise tips help prioritize your planning. Read & bring the Lonely Planet Peru guidebook along the trip for detailed itineraries, specific lodging and sights. If you get just one book, make it the Lonely Planet country guide. Support my photography by buying books or consumer products at Amazon.com using any of these special links:

Left: Our tents at Lake Jahuacocha (13,340 feet), beneath Mount Jirishanca ("Icy Beak of the Hummingbird"; 20,000 feet elevation), Cordillera Huayhuash.

Below: A trekker ascends a steep alpine pass beneath Mount Jirishanca.
Mount Jirishanca (20,000 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru
Children in town of Llamac, in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru
Above: Children in town of Llamac (10,000 feet), our first night in the Cordillera Huayhuash. [Published in the book "Climbs and Treks in the Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru" Copyright 2005 by Jeremy Frimer] Blue door in Llamac Village, Peru

Left: Blue door in Llamac Village, Peru.

Left: Near Pampa Llamac, blasting to create an aqueduct has exposed rocks to colorful oxidization.

Below: The tassles on this friendly llama mark who owns the llama, as it grazes on communally-managed land in the Cordillera Raura area. See the bottom of this page for more llama images.
A friendly llama with tassles, Peru

Sambuya Pass (15,580 feet), above Lake Solterachocha (13,514 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru

Above: Our guide ascends Sambuya Pass (15,580 feet elevation), above turquoise Lake Solterachocha (13,514 feet), beneath an awesome 20,000-foot peak in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru, South America.

How to Acclimatize to High Altitude

If you ascend too quickly above 10,000 feet elevation, you may very likely suffer from the nausea, headaches, or sleeplessness of altitude sickness (or mountain sickness; or soroche, in Spanish). For most people, the best way to acclimatize above 10,000 feet elevation is to "climb high, sleep low", sleeping only about 1000 feet higher each day. Take the time necessary to let your body naturally adjust to higher altitudes, without relying on a special drug. The speed at which you acclimatize to high altitude is unpredictable, and can vary for the same person on different occasions. Descending quickly towards sea level is the best cure if you become altitude sick.
But if your tight trip schedule restricts your time to safely acclimate, you might try taking the natural herb Ginkgo Biloba, which has fewer undesirable side effects than Diamox, the drug most commonly prescribed by doctors for preventing altitude sickness. Starting at sea level, I believe that my sleep was significantly better in my first 2 nights in Cuzco (at 11,000 feet) when taking Ginkgo Biloba herb in 2003, versus my trip in year 2000 without the herb. Most of our group of 11 men took 120 milligrams of Ginkgo Biloba herb twice a day starting 5 days before ascending (proven to reduce altitude sickness in clinical trials), and no one experienced serious problems from mountain sickness on the following Huayhuash Trek:

**Cordillera Huayhuash Trek: Daily Elevations (in feet)**
To best acclimatize for the Huayhuash Trek, we rode a public bus from **Lima at sea level**, over a 13,400-foot pass to **Huaraz**, where we **slept 3 nights at 10,000 feet**, making two day trips: 1) we visited Chavin at 10,360 feet on the other side of the Andes, twice crossing a 14,900-foot pass; and 2) we bused to 13,500 feet and hiked downhill to Huaraz. This prepared us well for the following 8-day high altitude trek:
Trek Day:	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7	Day 8
Highest/Pass	10,660 feet	13,448	15,580	15,370	15,250	15,744	15,700	15,700
Camp Height	10,660 feet	13,448	13,776	14,100	13,940	14,270	14,500	14,400 bus pickup

How high can humans live?

At 18,000 feet you breath only half the oxygen compared to sea level. Research indicates that humans cannot live permanently above an elevation of 18,000 feet without suffering a gradual physiological deterioration that eventually leads to death. Mountaineers who anticipate spending time above 18,000 feet must fatten themselves before the climb to offset their inevitable weight loss.
Workers at the Aucanquilcha sulfur mining camp in Chile lived for years at 17,500 feet above sea level, and ascended each day to work the mine at 18,800 feet. A settlement in Bolivia matched this 17,500-foot record altitude maximum for permanent human habitation. As of May 2003, National Geographic Magazine reports that 16,730-foot La Rinconada, Peru, is currently the highest permanent human habitation.
Air retains a constant 21 percent of oxygen content (the rest is mostly Nitrogen) throughout all surface altitudes. But as you climb to higher altitudes, the weight of the air column above you decreases, thus lowering air density. As you ascend, the oxygen available per lungfull decreases as follows:

Altitude	Available Oxygen, Compared to Sea Level (average observed at 45 degrees latitude**)
0 feet (sea level)	100% (base for comparison)
5,000 feet	80 % of sea level oxygen per lungfull
10,000 feet	69% of sea level oxygen per lungfull
15,000 feet	56% of sea level oxygen per lungfull
18,000 feet	50% of sea level oxygen per lungfull
20,000 feet	45% of sea level oxygen per lungfull
29,000 feet	31% of sea level oxygen per lungfull

**The above figures are averages that apply only to the mid latitudes (45 degrees latitude, North or South). Oxygen available per lungfull also varies slightly by latitude as follows: you will gasp for air about 5 percent harder when climbing at 20,000 feet on Alaska's Denali (Mount McKinley) than when climbing at the same altitude in the Himalayas. Denali is at 63 degrees north latitude, the Himalaya at 28 degrees north latitude, and the Cordillera Huayhuash at 10 degrees south latitude. Denali rises to 20,320 feet but has the oxygen availability of a 23,000 -foot peak in the Himalayas.
At a given altitude, oxygen available per lungfull is highest at the equator (0 degrees latitude) where the atmosphere is deepest (such as at Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa), and lowest at the poles (90 degrees latitude) where the atmosphere is shallowest. The centripetal force of the earth's spin shapes the atmosphere (and the earth itself) into an "oblate spheroid", flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator.

Icefall on Mount Jirishanca (20,000 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru
Left: Ice fall on Mount Jirishanca ("Icy Beak of the Hummingbird"; 20,000 feet).

Mount Rondoy (19,260 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru
Left: An alpine tarn reflects Mount Rondoy (19,260 feet).

Trekking Season & Climate

The climate is generally wonderful for trekking in Peru's mountain dry season from May through September. Days are about 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit, and nights about 38 degrees. Few tourists have discovered the Cordillera Huayhuash, and now is a good time to see it before it becomes more developed. Interestingly, the coast of Peru, which includes the capital at Lima, has a climate opposite to the mountains: a short summer of sunny, sticky days from January to March, followed by 9 months of gray mist called the garua. Coastal Peru is one of the driest deserts on earth, watered only by rivers descending from the Andes.

Below: We lunch near an alpine tarn beneath Mount Rondoy (19,260 feet).

Mount Rondoy (19,260 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru

Mount Jirishanca (20,000 feet), Peru
Left: Mount Jirishanca ( "Icy Beak of the Hummingbird" 20,000 feet) seen from our Camp 5, at Lake Carhuacocha.

Below: Our 11 trekkers plus guide Koki at Lake Mitococha (13,900 feet) beneath Mount Jirishanca (20,000 feet), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru.

Tent at dawn in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru
Above right: Our cook makes breakfast in a tent at dawn at Camp 5 beneath the soaring peaks of, left to right: Yerupaja (21,760 feet, the second highest in Peru), Yerupaja Chico (20,080 feet), and Mount Jirishanca (20,000 feet).

Caracara birds (which are a type of falcon), Peru Left: Caracara birds are a type of falcon.

Below: A fighting cock struts in Llamac Village.
A fighting cock in Llamac Village, Peru

Below: Camp 5, by Lake Carhuacocha (13,600 feet elevation): The three mountains left to right are named as follows: 1) Yerupaja (21,760 feet, the second highest in Peru), 2) Yerupaja Chico (20,080 feet), 3) Mount Jirishanca ("Icy Beak of the Hummingbird"; 20,000 feet). This image was published by Scholastic Inc. in the 2008 classroom paperback "Left to Die".
Camping at 13,600 feet in Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru (at Lake Carhuacocha)

Siula Grande

Cordillera Huayhuash reflected in lake at 15,000 feet, Peru

Above: The Cordillera Huayhuash reflects in a small lake here at 15,000 feet. [Published in Wilderness Travel 2006 Catalog of Adventures.]
The highest peak on the right is Siula Grande (20,800 feet / 6344 meters), the subject of the gripping 2003 British docudrama "Touching the Void." In 1985, climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates scaled the treacherous Siula Grande, one of the last unconquered mountains in the Andes, but after Joe broke his leg, their descent became one of the most amazing survival stories in mountaineering history. This photo shows the east face, but they climbed Siula Grande from a valley on the other side (the west face). This movie is based upon Joe Simpson's harrowing book, "Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival" (published 2004, 1993, & 1989).

Above: a colt and the Huayhuash Range reflect in a pond.

Below: Siula Grande.

Below: The peak on the right is Carnicero (19,550 feet / 5960 meters) and on the far left is Trapecio (18,550 feet / 5653 meters). [Published in the book "Climbs and Treks in the Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru" Copyright 2005 by Jeremy Frimer]
Cordillera Huayhuash reflected in lake at 15,000 feet, Peru

Cordillera Raura

The source of the Amazon River lies on the east side of the Cordillera Raura (on the other side of the mountains in the following llama & bus photo), as determined by the Royal Geographical Society in 1950: the tiny glacial lake Laguna Niñococha feeds Rio Lauricocha, then Rio Marañon, then the Amazon. To reach the source of the Amazon, trekkers can depart from the regular Huayhuash circuit near Huayhuash village on Day 7, go eastwards to Caquish, wade across Rio Lauricocha, climb to Laguna Niñococha and finish at the mining town of Mina Raura, on the road head to Churin and Lima (8 days total from Chiquian). You can also hike a complete Huayhuash loop (11 days) or other worthwhile variations. If you can adjust to the altitude, I highly recommend trekking around the awesome Huayhuash Mountains.
Llama at Lake Surasaca (14,435 ft), Yarupac Peak (18,650 ft), Cordillera Raura, Peru

Above: At the end of our Huayhuash Trek, a llama greets our bus at Lake Surasaca (14,435 ft). On the right background rises Mount Yarupac (18,650 ft), which is part of the Cordillera Raura (the source of the Amazon River), a small range southeast of Cordillera Huayhuash. The bus drove us from 14,435 feet elevation on mostly rough gravel roads back via Churin to Lima at sea level in a tiring 10 hours.

Llama with tassles, Cordillera Raura, Peru
Left: The tassles on this friendly llama mark who owns the llama, as it grazes on communally-managed land in the Cordillera Raura area.

Above: Mount Kuajadajanka (17,800 feet), in the Cordillera Raura.

Above: On Day 6, we crossed the outlet stream of Lake Carhuacocha (13,600 feet) in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru. The mountain on the left is the second highest in Peru, Yerupaja (21,760 feet above sea level). [Published several times.]

PERU Page 4/4: Cordillera Huayhuash

Copyright 2003 by Tom Dempsey. Photographs or text may not be copied without permission.
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Peru Index 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4

Page 1: Overview / Cuzco / The Wari People / Inca Conquest / Moray / Salt Pans at Salinas / Lares Trek / Fujimori, Toledo, & the Economy
Page 2: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu ~ Page 3: Cordillera Blanca: Trekking Season & Climate / Chavin / Santa Cruz Trek / Inca Legacies
Page 4 (this page): Cordillera Huayhuash: Altitude Acclimatization / Climate/ Touching the Void / Amazon Source

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