April Adventures: Trek Day 2

Note: We both agree this was the prettiest day of the hike, so we took lots of photos, and this post is full of them.  I recommend double clicking on them if you want to see the larger images. 

We woke up early the next morning, bundled up and got a yummy breakfast of hot chocolate, pancakes with dulce de leche, and bread and jam.  We packed up our stuff and got ready for the hardest part of the trek: We would spend the morning ascending to a pass at 4600 meters (15,000 feet), where we would be relatively close to Nevada Salkantay.  After the summit, we would begin descending and would end up sleeping at a much lower altitude, which meant warmer weather.  Several people in our group were worried about the strenuousness of the hike, so they were able to rent horses for 80 soles (~$26) from the neighboring villagers that would take them to the summit.  Luckily, we were tougher than that, so we set out to make the climb on our own.  It was cold when we set out, so we layered up and took our time:

After a moderate climb, we reached this nice open meadow where we got to walk on flat ground for a change and had a great view of Salkantay:

After this flat reprieve, however, we reached a series of switchbacks known as siete culebras (seven snakes) that was difficult.  We took our time, stopped to enjoy the view, and relied heavily on York peppermint patties as our rewards after we finished a switchback, although maybe I relied on them more than JP.  At least it had gotten sunny so we could take off a few layers and enjoy the view:

After siete culebras, we continued to climb more slowly, until we came to another meadow and took a rest and snack break with our group before the final stretch to the pass.  Even though we were at higher altitude, the climb was more gradual and I actually found the last part easier.  We were both happy to reach the top though!  When we reached the pass we had a great view of the mountain:

We ate some more peanut butter to celebrate, and explored a little bit.

Even though the pass we crossed was 4600 meters (15,000 feet), the peak of the Salkantay mountain is at 6271 meters (20,500 feet). Here are a few more pictures from the summit:

We were getting cold, so we started the descent and our legs welcomed the change of pace.  We got to enjoy beautiful scenery like this (this is a good one to see full size):

We also heard and saw an avalanche on one of the peaks of Salkantay, but we were far enough away that we could watch it safely from afar.  As we descended, we could see the landscape change and become much more green quite rapidly. 

The path didn’t descend too steeply, so we were able to enjoy the scenery until we arrived to our lunch spot.  From this spot, we could see the valley continue to descend and we watched the clouds roll through, variously showing and obscuring the large rocks and hills surrounding us:

We ate lunch and continued the descent.  It continued to get greener and also started to get wetter, unfortunately.  We were hiking at the very end of the rainy season (officially ending in May, this was the last week of April) so we didn’t know how our luck would be with the weather.  I was surprised at how wet the trail was in places, and this got to be a bigger issue the lower in altitude we got. 

Anyway, we continued down the trail and didn’t get muddy until the very end, when the whole trail basically became a muddy river for several sections.  It was still a beautiful day though.

Just when we were starting to think that we would never get to the campsite, we turned a corner and saw our tents all set up in a row and our guide waving us over, and we were so excited!  By the time we arrived, it had been a 10 hour day, including the three hours of ascent in the morning, and we were tired.  It was also warmer, as we had descended to about 2900 meters (9500 feet).  We relaxed and had snack and dinner, and again went to bed early.