La Cordillera Blanca - continued (and a bit of Cordillera Negra)

After the wonderful ascent of Nevado Pisco and a couple of days of well earned rest in Huaraz, I find myself in a taxi heading to the rock climbing paradise Hatun Machay. Together with me in the car are Korbi, my German climbing buddy from Pisco, and Fede & Sandra, a Spanish couple we met in the basecamp of Pisco. Hatun Machay - which in Quechua language means Big Cave - is a mystic rock forest situated 100km south of Huaraz in the Cordillera Negra at an altitude of 4300m... a real challenge for the endurance when climbing longer tracks! In the past people have lived in this area, the stone carvings in some of the caves are the silent witnesses, but now it is a remote area where only a few campesinos (farmers) are living with their flocks of sheep and there is a Refugio where the climbers can stay. We brought food for 5 days and the great variety of tracks kept us busy climbing for 5 days in a row :-) I was happy to be able to climb some 6bs and 6cs on-sight after almost two months of not having done any rock climbing... the last day we even climbed two beautiful 7a cracks, in both of them I needed a rest though. The evenings in the Refugio were very cosy with a fire and everybody cooking together. There were also a couple of other climbers from Argentina and Colombia and all together we had a great feast on the last evening: we bought a sheep from one of the campesinos, had it cut into pieces, marinated it and prepared in the oven... njammie!!

Back in Huaraz, having breakfast under a clear blue sky with a view on the snow-capped mountains of the Cordillera Blanca, it started itching to do one more mountain... I had no problem at all to convince Korbi to join me also on this next trip, a trip up to Quebrada Llaca - the valley closest by Huaraz - and to Nevado Vallunaraju (5860m)! To climb this mountain we made a high camp on the morene at around 5000m which allowed us a later start in the morning (at 3am instead of 1am) and thus a couple of hours more sleep :-) Lucky as we were, we had again beautiful weather, perfect snow and ice conditions and we were the only two people that day navigating through the impressive crevasses on the mountain! Another summit also means another celebration party... and this one was a very special one. Percy, a mountain guide with whom we talked a lot the days before climbing Vallunaraju, invited us for the baptism party of his daughter Lucia. Peruvian hospitality at its best!! 

   Hatun Machay, with my excellent and funny climbing buddies: Fede, Sandra and Korbi.

   One of the classics in Hatun Machay (Pincitas, 6a+)

   A wonderful rock climbing place in the middle of nowhere...

   Korbi on the move!

   Women in traditional clothes, including the nice hats (and plastic rain cover).

   Nice chicks in Huaraz! ;-)

   Or do you prefer pig meat?

   Wall painting in one of the small streets of Huaraz.

   View from my hostal in Huaraz: on the left the two distinct summits of Nevado Vallunaraju!

   Our high camp on the morene: a room with a view on Nevado Ranrapalca.

   Reaching the col between the two summits of Nevado Vallunaraju.

   Artistic view on Nevado Huascaran on the way to the top of Vallunaraju...

   We did it again! Korbi and me on the summit of Vallunaraju!!

   Baptism party of Lucia, the daughter of mountain guide Percy.

   Lucia about to blow the candle on her delicious baptism cake!