The Hardest Trek

That was probably the hardest trek I’ve ever done.

I didn’t know I was arriving here at the end of the season. It was a ghost town when I got here. Welcome to traveling solo and not a lot of time to wait. Luck smiles upon the determined. At Café Andino, I meet Val, a Canadian guide whose worked in Cordillera Blanca for the last 15 years. She arranged for my trek with the family she works with as she was unavailable herself.

The Santa Cruz trek is the one I had set my heart on, except there is no one has left town and it is costly to do it alone. Quilcayhuanca Valley is a viable option for a trekking party of one. It will just be me, a guide and minimal gear. Val conveniently glossed over the climb up when we talked over difficulty and terrains regarding the trek.

Day One was an easy 4 hrs trek to reach campsite at 3300m. The next day we will need to climb to a 5050m mountain-pass, then straight back down again before camp.

I woke up on the second morning with rain falling on my head. Is the tent leaking? I don’t hear it raining outside. The temperature dropped below freezing overnight, condensation from our breathing turned into snow flakes inside the tent and it melting with the morning sun. I snuggle down a little deeper into the sleeping bag and though, “Why am I doing this?”

I am alone here in the woods with a Spanish speaking guide, Claus, who’ve been hitting on me non-stop (very awkward when you are sharing a tent with him). “Why you are not married?” is a questions I am not sure I can answer in English much less Spanish.

I love being in the mountains and a challenge, but I also know I have nothing to prove. My pay grade does not go up if I am successful in climbing this mountain. The next 1700 meters will be tough, really really tough. So why am I doing this?

Isn’t the point of civilization so we are not shitting in the woods, sleeping on the ground and protected from the elements? What is wrong with us that we insist on getting back out in nature as we do?

As I crawl out of my sleeping bag, I am a little bit more motivated. I want to know what is on the other side of this mountain. I’ve never seen it before. So Claus and I went. I thought, hey, lets give it an hour and see how my knees (bad knees from an skiing accident when I was 15) are handling it and we could always quit if it gets too rough.

So I went.

One hour into the next and every hour Claus would check in and see how I am doing. Seeing there is not much to say between Claus and I — the more conversation we have, the more aggressive his advances are. I’m tired of fielding questions I cannot answer nor need to — putting on my headphones seem best. Just as we are reaching the point of no return, Pearl Jam is playing and I am in the zone, Claus looks at me, I nod and on we went. I blame the rest of the trek on Eddie Vedder.

For the rest of the afternoon, much of my internal dialogue oscillated between how much more fun it would have been with a friend, someone other than Claus and WHY AM I DOING THIS? Then the internal dialogue turned into, can I make it to that rock? Yes I can. Then I can stop for a minute and catch my breath. Okay. Can I make it to that rock next to the shrub? Mind you, the rock is often only 3 meters in front of me. On and on the rock narrative went until I made it to 5050m and hike around the side of the mountain at elevation.

View from the top:

Then comes the descent. 600m straight down before it eases up and graduate out for another 7km before camp.

Claus thought day two should have taken 6 hrs while I took 8 hrs to complete. Whatever. He is a guide and he hikes that shit all day long. I have no guilt for not having done it faster.

The next day, he estimated 4 hrs before we are out of the national park and at our pick up point, except I covered the distance in 2.5 hrs. I didn’t do it to impress him. I was happy to take all day if need be — but the trail was easy and I had a good pace going.

I asked a good friend why did I climb, he said, because you are a Capricorn. You did it for the challenge. It’s in your nature.