dred

After the 10 day Cedros – Alpamayo Trek I decided to do the Cordillera Huayhuash circuit. Erin was satisfied with the one long trek and chose not to join me. In order to save money and give myself a bigger physical challenge over 9 days, I did the trek unsupported.

With nearly the entire trek over 4,000m, passes above 5,000m and a complicated ticketing system, the day before leaving I started to worry if I’d gone a bit beyond my capabilities for my first solo hike. I need not have worried. The trek has become so popular in recent times that at no stage did I go more than a few hours without seeing someone, and the campsites leant more towards annoyingly loud than spookily quiet.

This hasn’t always been the case in the Cordillera Huayhuash. For years it was considered a no go area for tourists, with Shining Path rebels (a communist militant group) hiding out in the region. In 2004, a trekker was killed after an argument escalated with an armed local. Even as late as four years ago when my parents did the trek, they saw way less than the 30+ people I saw most days.

My feeling is the trek is only going to continue to get busier. It really does deserve its reputation as one of (if not the) best multi day walks in South America. Amazingly, the area is not a national park. This appears to have some advantages, as the fees I was charged to enter each of the different administrative areas went directly to the community, as opposed to first being diverted through the Peruvian bureaucracy. The negative aspect of this arrangement was also apparent early on during the trek as I walked past an operational mine.

Some parts of trekking solo were great. I could wake up when I wanted. Walk as far and as fast as I felt capable. Eat whenever I was hungry. There was also a lot of time where all I had was my own thoughts as I walked along. But towards the end, probably exacerbated by a river fall that damaged my camera, I started to struggle with motivation, or at least begin to question why I’d spent 23 of the last 25 days walking in the mountains.

Certainly, I won’t miss having the same meals nine days in a row. Opening the tent each morning was a nightmare, with the ice that had accumulated on the outside of the tent overnight finding its way onto my neck and back. I’ll be happy to not have to endure another night so cold that I’m in all my clothes, gloves and beanie cocooned in my sleeping bag and still freezing. I stank. I didn’t enjoy the continued thoughts popping into my head that when I re-entered society something bad may have happened to someone I care about. There is a large part of hiking that isn’t just mediocre, it’s downright horrendous.

That said, I enjoyed feeling like I deserved all the chocolate I was eating. On clear nights, the sky was amazing. I loved not hearing traffic for days on end. But most of all, I’ll miss the views that the Huayhuash circuit offered – often after spending hours struggling up a steep track. This is what makes it all worth it.

In the end, I think the reason I struggled for motivation at times on this walk was the absence of Erin. It was a tale of two extremes, going from spending literally 24 hours a day together for most of the last 8 months, to having 9 days without any contact, the longest we’ve had in 11 years. And I didn’t enjoy it one bit. I guess it shows how important she is to me. Or maybe it highlights an unhealthy dependence.

Andrew