La Cordillera Blanca

Anxiously looking forward to explore the Cordillera Blanca, I arrived together with Sara -a friend from Italy- in Huaraz, Peru. Huaraz is the Chamonix of the Cordillera Blanca... The base to start your 'expeditions' in the mountains and above all the place where you can relax, take a hot shower and enjoy plenty of good food and drinks after having completed a trekking or climb!!

One day after arriving I headed off with Sara for the Santa Cruz trek, some guidebooks say 'one of the best hikes in the world'. I don't know if that's true, but for sure it was an amazing 5 days with stunning views and amazing campsites in two of the nicest valleys of the Cordillera Blanca! 

Sara had to go back to Europe for work, so I started looking for climbing buddies for my next project: Nevado Pisco. With its 5752m an easy to slightly difficult mountain with superb views over many of the other well known mountains of the Cordillera Blanca. It took me two attempts to summit this mountain. In the first attempt I teamed up with Joris and Libby, a French-British couple, but the weather destroyed our plans... we stayed three days at the base camp (winterraum of Refugio Peru), but saw only lots of rain and snow. The second night we decided to give it a try, but after hours of walking in drizzling snow and breaking trail on the glacier in knee-deep snow, we stranded in a complete white-out at the col at 5300m. Back to Huaraz to relax, have good food and... make plans for a new attempt, because they predicted better weather for the coming days! I meet my new climbing partner Korbi over a capuccino in one of the many cosy bars in Huaraz. Since we feel both well acclimatised, we decide to do a 'blitzkrieg' on Nevado Pisco: half a day to reach the Refugio, have a siesta, eat a lot, have again a nap, start climbing in the night, summiting around sunrise and back in Huaraz the next day in the afternoon. Everything worked as planned... we set off under a clear sky accompanied by the full moon giving a magical touch to the glacier and the snow ridge. Korbi and me were the only two people on the mountain, we made our own trail on fresh powder snow and enjoyed the sunrise over the Cordillera Blanca at the summit of Nevado Pisco!!

The agenda for next days: some rock climbing in Hatun Machay, the highest rock climbing area in the world (if I can believe Vincent)! 

    Santa Cruz trek day 2... looking back at the distance we covered already :-)

    Santa Cruz valley with one of the lagunas.

    Meditating at Punta Union, highest point of the Santa Cruz trek and pass to the next valley.

    The next valley: Huaripampa valley...

    Huaripampa valley 'guarded by' Nevado Paria.

    Sara and me at the end of trek, standing on top of the Llanganuco valley with the beautiful lakes!

    Making it cosy in the winterraum of Refugio Peru :-)

    First attempt on Nevado Pisco with Joris & Libby... and lots of snow.

    Panorama with the Huandoy group on the left, Piso in the middle and Chacraraju on the right.

    Magical sunrise over the Cordillera Blanca

    The Huandoy group at sunrise...

    Korbi on the summit ridge of Piso!

    Chacraraju seen from the summit of Pisco.

    How many 6000ers can you fit in one view?!?

    From left to right: Chopicalqui, Huascaran Sur, Huascaran Norte and the Huandoy group.

    Jeje, made it to the top!! In the background the highest summits of Peru: Chopicalqui & Huascarans.

    Korbi and me on top of Nevado Pisco, what a team!