Day 9: Janacrurish to Osoruri via Vientunan Pass

Hiking time: ~ 5.25 hours
Elevation gain: 570 m/1870 ft
Elevation loss: 170 m/558 ft
High Point: Vientunan Pass 4770 m/15,650 ft
Campsite: Osoruri 4600 m/15,092 ft (highest camp of the trek)

Today was our first morning without frost. We enjoyed Joel’s big, puffy pancakes for breakfast while admiring the clear view of Alpamayo. We would continue to see Alpamayo as we walked down Quebrada Alpamayo to Ruina Pampa (~ two hours). We traversed along the mountainside above the valley floor where the donkeys went. At Ruina Pampa we could see some rocks in formation and evidence of terraces from people who lived here nearly 3000 years ago. It was also our last good look at Alpamayo. After a break we started our climb to Vientunan, which would takes us around 2’45” (including breaks). Switchbacks galore! It was a cloudy day and the views from the pass were underwhelming. Plus, it was windy and cold and we could see our camp not too far below, so we didn’t linger long at the pass. It took less than thirty minutes to reach our camp, perched high between Vientunan and Osoruri Passes. It was our highest campsite of the trip and one of our favorites. We liked being high up in the mountains. After tea and snacks Cesar and Steve went for a hike up on the ridge and Norah and I read and played Uno with the guys. It cleared a little in the afternoon and we had a decent sunset - it was pretty colors off in the distance. Dinner was a chicken/potato/veggie combo in a red sauce with rice. As usual, dinner was filling and hit the spot. We didn’t see any cows around our campsite, but somehow they found us just as we were getting ready to get in the tent for the night. My headlamp caught some glowing eyes in the bushes. It was a little unnerving as they seemed to be just at the edge of camp watching us. Later in the night we could hear them walking around camp.This happened several times on our trek - not sure what the cows liked about camp, but they always seemed to appear at dark.