Hiking the Cordillera Blanca
Nestled deep in the valley of the Callejon de Huayllas, the city of Huaraz makes the perfect base for day hiking, multi-day trekking and alpine mountaineering in the famous Cordillera Blanca. Being the worlds highest tropical mountain range and arguably the most scenicly spectacular to boot, it spans over 180kms from south to north and includes over 200 high-altitude snowy peaks (27 of them over 6000m, including Peru´s highest peak ´Huascaren´) making it practically Sth America´s nirvana for enthusiast technical mountain climbers.
Upon arrival, I made an easy decision to extend my trip in Sth America to concentrate on exploring the surrounding scenery, mainly through day-hiking but with the ultimate aim of bagging a snowy peak for myself before moving on.
My previous Bolivian pet "Roy the puma" had bitten my left knee a few times to many it seemed, so I was forced to seek out local physiotherapy before undertaking anything ambitious however. A week´s rest PLUS a quarter-zone injection directly into my knee later, had me ready to consider my options, and I first decided to visit an English mate´s mountain lodge, of whom I´d met in one of the comfy ´gringo friendly´ cafes in town ( complete with chess sets, boardgames and extensive "English" book libraries to read and borrow from :)
"The Way Inn" mountain lodge was truly comfortable and another great place to meet fellow gringo hikers, some of whom I conversed with about undertaking a summit of Mount Pisco (5970m); one of the best snowy peaks for less experienced mountaineers to start with, due to it´s less technical nature. In the mean time, I took some acclimatization day-hikes in the surrounding valleys, including a visit to the beautiful glacial "Laguna Churup" with a few peeps I had met playing (and loosing badly to) "Risk" the night before :)
Following this, I made a trip with 2 other friends (an Aussie and his Israeli/American girlfriend) down the valley in Parque National Huascaren to another recommended acclimatization destination, known as "Laguna 69", which conveniently lay a day´s walk from the base camp of "Mt Pisco".
Nestled deep in the valley of the Callejon de Huayllas, the city of Huaraz makes the perfect base for day hiking, multi-day trekking and alpine mountaineering in the famous Cordillera Blanca. Being the worlds highest tropical mountain range and arguably the most scenicly spectacular to boot, it spans over 180kms from south to north and includes over 200 high-altitude snowy peaks (27 of them over 6000m, including Peru´s highest peak ´Huascaren´) making it practically Sth America´s nirvana for enthusiast technical mountain climbers.
Upon arrival, I made an easy decision to extend my trip in Sth America to concentrate on exploring the surrounding scenery, mainly through day-hiking but with the ultimate aim of bagging a snowy peak for myself before moving on.
My previous Bolivian pet "Roy the puma" had bitten my left knee a few times to many it seemed, so I was forced to seek out local physiotherapy before undertaking anything ambitious however. A week´s rest PLUS a quarter-zone injection directly into my knee later, had me ready to consider my options, and I first decided to visit an English mate´s mountain lodge, of whom I´d met in one of the comfy ´gringo friendly´ cafes in town ( complete with chess sets, boardgames and extensive "English" book libraries to read and borrow from :)
"The Way Inn" mountain lodge was truly comfortable and another great place to meet fellow gringo hikers, some of whom I conversed with about undertaking a summit of Mount Pisco (5970m); one of the best snowy peaks for less experienced mountaineers to start with, due to it´s less technical nature. In the mean time, I took some acclimatization day-hikes in the surrounding valleys, including a visit to the beautiful glacial "Laguna Churup" with a few peeps I had met playing (and loosing badly to) "Risk" the night before :)
Following this, I made a trip with 2 other friends (an Aussie and his Israeli/American girlfriend) down the valley in Parque National Huascaren to another recommended acclimatization destination, known as "Laguna 69", which conveniently lay a day´s walk from the base camp of "Mt Pisco".
