And we’re off on our Huayhuash Circuit adventure! We were on the road by 7:30 for the four hour drive from Huaraz to Llamac. The first half of the drive was on the highway and the terrain reminded us of Wyoming. When we turned off the highway we dropped in elevation to Chiquián and had great views of the pretty valley and the terrace farming surrounding the town. Chiquián was the original start of the Huayhuash circuit until improvement of the roads allowed access from Llamac and saved hiking time. There are several ways to access the Huayhuash circuit and we opted for a full circuit starting and ending in LLamac. The roads from Chiquián to Llamac are all gravel with some ups and downs in the valleys and along the mountain sides (we did get caught in an Andean travel jam on our way there - met a truck and some burros on the road that required some maneuvering until we could pass). We met Miguel, Margarita, and our donkeys in Llamac and started out on the trail while the gear was packed and loaded.

This day had one of our biggest ascents of 1000 m/3300 ft from Llamac to Pampa Llamac (4300 m/14,100 ft). We felt better than the day before (so thankful we spent three days acclimating in Huaraz!) and put Norah in front to set us a nice and steady pace up the mountain. We had nice views of the valley as we climbed the switchbacks and it wasn’t long before our donkey train passed us by. It helped pass the time listening to all the info Victor shared about the plants and animals of the region. We stopped for lunch and made our final push to the pass. Our day had started out sunny, but it was spitting snow when we arrived at Pampa Llamac and the mountains were obscured by clouds, so we did not stay long. It felt good though to hit our high point for the day.

We only had 250 m/800 ft to descend to Jahuacocha (4050 m/13,300 ft), which sounded deceptively easy, especially compared to the big ascent we had just made. And the trail was well graded and easy to hike, it was just long as we worked our way around the mountainside through the valley. Every time we rounded a bend in the trail we were hoping to see the lake in sight and would give a little sigh of disappointment when we just saw more trail ahead of us. It was a pretty hike; I was just getting a little worried about the time and getting to camp before dark. We eventually descended into the valley and finally saw the moraine at the foot of the lake. We made good time across the open field and climbed the moraine just in time to see a beautiful sunset (it had taken us around seven hours from start to finish). Miguel, Margarita, and Joel came out to greet us (and probably feeling relieved they didn’t need to come fetch us with the horses) and whisked us away into the dining tent for hot drinks and a snack before dinner. Luxury - could get used to this! They had also set up our tent, so there wasn’t much for us to do except get cleaned up, get out our sleeping bags, and eat (soup, trout, rice, and cucumber/tomato salad). We were pretty knackered and only took a cursory look at the beautiful stars before crawling into our tent for some sweet shut eye. A successful start to our circuit - we are thrilled to finally be here!

Day 1:
1000 m/3300 ft ascent
250 m/800 ft descent
13 km/8.1 mi (book time 5.5 - 8 hours)
High point Pampa Llamac 4300 m/14,100 ft
Camp at Jahuacocha 4050 m/13,300 ft