Archive - Date

Archive - Geography

Collected lists

Chopicalqui

Date:
21.07.2006
Characteristic:
Expedition

Taken from my diary, the last peak of a 4-week trip to the Cordillera Blanca region of the Andes, in Peru. I forgot how much detail I noted! :-) Friday, 21st July 2006: Huaraz to Chopicalqui base camp Breakfast was at about 7am and the weather was looking very fine, stable and clear. We weren’t going to have any mules to carry our kit in to base camp for Chopicalqui so we had to try and minimize what we brought with us down to a single rucksack. We left Olaza's B&B in Huaraz at 9.15am and headed off back into the mountains for our last time. The road was the same leading north-westwards out of Huaraz to Yungay. Yungay is a town previously devastated by an avalanche or rock fall of some sort on Huascaran back in the 1970s but when we drove through there wasn’t much evidence of its past. >>>

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Alpamayo

Date:
11.07.2006
Characteristic:
Expedition

A shortened version of my diary from the second part of a 4-week trip to Peru (final week of the trip was spent making an ascent of Chopicalqui ) 11th July 2006: Huaraz to Cashapampa/Llamacoral We left Huaraz along the same road north-westwards that we’d used to get to the Ishinca valley, but this time the journey took us much further to the north-west to reach Cashapampa. It was quite an exciting journey and the road weaved round some ridiculously tight corners, which were situated close to some steep cliffs - but there were no safety barriers to prevent vehicles going over the edge! The countryside was spectacularly green though, lots of lush trees despite being surrounded by dry, steep and rocky gorges as well as the glaciated peaks. We arrived into Cashapampa at about 11am, where it was baking hot >>>

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Ishinca

Date:
05.07.2006
Characteristic:
Hike

First few days of acclimatisation in the Ishinca valley Wednesday, 5th July 2006: Huaraz – Pashpa – Ishinca base camp (4390m) The first part of our journey involved a bus journey from Huaraz to Pashpa. The roads weren’t great but we had many interesting sights along the way, passing some tree plantations and people working or walking along the roadside. They seemed to be very cheerful and friendly and gave us a wave or smiled as we drove past. After arriving in Pashpa and sorting out the mules, which were carrying some of our kit to the camp we began the trek at about 10am. It was pretty ok and grassy to walk on, but immensely hot. The views across to Huascaran and the surrounding peaks of Huandoy and Chopicalqui were unbeatable though and we took our time to fully appreciate the scenery >>>

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