UJ #9 - Adventure in Peru

SACRED MOUNTAIN
Right: This route demands
excellent physical fitness,
because its average
altitude is 4,600 m.a.s.l. for
that reason three days of
acclimatisation in Cusco
are recommended.
Below: The services of the
four lodges are first class.
Comfortable rooms and
good food.
Diego del Rio
Christian Declercq
Andean Lodges
The most popular trek lasts five days and four nights,
and Andean Lodges offers an outstanding option.
The company has built four lodges on the route,
at an average altitude of 4,683 m.a.s.l. The lodges,
which have different view of Ausangate, have rooms
for sixteen people, private bathrooms with hot water,
and feather duvets; providing comfort for exhausted
walkers. They have been built to harmonise with their
surroundings, following the aesthetics of local architecture.
Services, including meals, are the responsibility of
members of neighbouring communities, giving them
closer links to the traditions of the local population. At
this altitude farming is unviable, so local people have
large flocks of llamas and alpacas, which are moved
along ancient tracks. “Most people living nearby are
herdsmen, the community of Ausangate and its inhabitants
being one of only three societies of this type
in the world. The others are the Sami, reindeer herders
in northern Norway and the Masai, who herd
cattle on the plains around Mount Kilimanjaro”, says
Nishiyama.
The trek starts in the district of Checacupe with a
visit to a colonial-era church built on Inca foundations.
The church contains paintings and murals of
the Cuzqueña School, as well as the oldest image of
the Immaculate Conception in Cusco and probably
the Americas. The route then takes you to Chillca, in
Uyuni Pampa, where the first lodge is located. Local
musicians welcome you at 4,368 m.a.s.l., with a view
of Mount Jatun Jampa in the background.
The next day you continue through the glacial valley
of Phinaya, accompanied by thousands of alpacas
and llamas. The route passes the Pjachaj falls, and
after lunch you continue climbing through an area of
moraines, glaciers and lakes. A caravan of llamas carried
your equipment as far as Machurracay Tambo,
the second lodge. This one is 4,815 metres above
sea level and, according to the company, is the highest
in the world. This is where the mountaineers
start there ascent of the peak, and the lodge acts as
a sort of base camp.
“We would say that the normal route is ‘fairly difficult’
(AD)”, says Richard Hidalgo, a Peruvian mountaineer
who has conquered numerous peaks in the Andes
and 5 of the 14 mountains in the world over 8,000
metres. “You have a gradient of 60º to 75º some 200
metres long, which takes you to a huge plateau. De-
Andean Lodges