Hiking
Ausangate Trek- Hail, Altitude and Alpacas
Contributed by Rowan James
Peru
The Ausangate Trek is a 70 km hiking trip that runs through one of the most beautiful landscapes in the Andes. Starting at 3600m above sea level and reaching high passes close to 5200 m, the Ausangate Trek reaches some seriously high elevations. Along the way, we passed by small villages, glacial lakes, towering snow capped peaks, and herds of alpacas.
- Distance
- 70
- Ascent
- 3750
- Difficulty
- 8
- Days
- 4
The Ausangate trek was the first hike of many during our two-month backpacking trip through Peru, Bolivia, and Patagonia. We organized a local bus to take us from the city of Cusco to a small village called Tinki, where we set off on our hike.
Arriving in Tinki, we got off the bus with no idea where to start walking. Using our limited Spanish and Google Translate, we managed to talk to some locals who kindly showed us roughly which way we needed to go to reach some sort of trail. We later realised they were telling us to take a taxi to the official start-missing it added an extra 10 km to our day...
About 10 minutes into the hike, it started raining and the temperature dropped significantly. This was just the beginning of what was about to be what I like to call a "Character Building" adventure.
Day 1: Tinki to Campamento Upis
The first day was an acclimatization day as we weren't too sure how our bodies would adapt to the altitude (we had only been in Cusco for two days prior). We ran into very wet, cold weather and quickly got used to the constantly changing conditions. Our large ponchos came in handy, covering both our bodies and backpacks. We passed lots of local Quechua people who were very friendly, although communication was tricky since they don't speak Spanish, but rather their local Quechua language (turns out it's not on Google Translate...). Along the way, my hands got extremely cold and completely numb. I couldn't even unclip the buckle to take off my bag or unzip my jacket. Luckily, Matt still had working fingers to help me out. We found an alpaca shed and made some coca leaf tea to try to warm up before continuing to our first camp. The local herdsman let us sleep on a patch of grass surrounded by his friendly alpacas, offering a spectacular view of Nevado Ausangate and the stars. Dinner: Rice, soup and tuna
Day 2: Upis to Camp near Anantapata Lodge
We woke up and started the morning with coca leaf tea mixed with maca for energy. We had struggled to sleep because our heart rates were sitting so high from the altitude. After getting a few portrait shots with the alpacas, we set off for an epic day full of unreal glaciers, lakes, and waterfalls. Along the way, we met another local herdsman who kindly requested his 20 Soles fee for us to pass through his land. The weather was chilly but clear as we pushed over a pass at 5000 m. Matt and I braved a quick bath in the freezing river and warmed up fast afterward. The temperature dropped below freezing that night, and we woke up to sheets of ice on our tent. Dinner: Rice, soup and tuna
Day 3: Anantapata to Rainbow Mountain (and over the 5128m Pass)
We packed all our overnight gear into one bag and left it in a little shed, planning to loop back later. The hike to Rainbow Mountain was around 6 km of beautiful trail. Rainbow Mountain was touristy, but still a very cool sight-and quite a vibe with all the local alpacas wearing sunglasses! We hiked back to our campsite, ate lunch, and set off again to make some distance. Then, the rain came back while we were traversing a steep slope. Matt asked me to grab his poncho out of the top zip of the bag, but unfortunately, it slipped out of my hands and rolled all the way down the slope. We searched for it to no avail-it was the exact same shade of green as the mountain grass. Thunder started rolling in and the tension spiked. In a rush, I slipped and snapped my hiking pole trying to scramble up a rock face. Things were not looking good... A full thunderstorm hit, but luckily Matt still had his rain jacket and gloves. With daylight fading, we pushed hard to reach a spot to set up camp. Around 5:00 PM, we approached a massive pass topping out at 5,128 m. It was nearly pitch black, and we had around 800 m of vertical climbing ahead of us in freezing rain. We went full David Goggins mode and grinded to the top. On the way down, I heard something drop from my bag. I pointed my headlamp and saw Matt's sleeping mat rolling down the muddy hill into a ditch. (I had been carrying it under my poncho to keep it dry...). Matt scrambled down the slippery slope to rescue it. We eventually found a flat piece of grass and pitched our tent in a frantic rush to get warm. What a day. Dinner: Skipped
Day 4: Huchuy Phinaya to Pacchanta
We had a good sleep-in and got moving around 9:00 AM after a rough night. Spirits were high, and the morning was full of good banter as we blamed each other for losing the poncho, breaking the pole, and dropping the sleeping mat. On our way out of the valley, a mother alpaca with a young one squared up to me after I got a bit too close to the baby. I backed away slowly and took a cool photo instead of trying to beef with an alpaca at altitude. We encountered another herdsman who charged us 40 Soles to cross his land, then tackled one more tough pass above 5100 m, where we ate lunch surrounded by unreal views of snow-capped peaks.
Naturally, the rain returned, and we geared up again. The temperature plummeted, and intense hail started beating down. With no trees or cover anywhere at this elevation, we had to improvise: we used my poncho and our remaining hiking poles against a boulder to create a tiny emergency tarp shelter to wait out the storm. We huddled and shivered in silence for 20 minutes above 5000 m until the hail stopped, then marched on.
We finally made it into the village of Pacchanta that evening and found a small shop. We asked the owner if he could drive us to Tinki (8 km away) to save us an extra day of walking so we could get back to Cusco early. He agreed and dropped us off that evening-just in time for us to catch the local Peruvian Carnival festival!
What an epic adventure!
Highlights
- Lakes
- Waterfalls
- Glaciers
- Remote experience
Must-Know
- Cash is required to pay access fee to locals
Permits
- No permit required and you can do this hike without a guide