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Published: October 2nd 2016
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After completing the Salkantay Trail and feeling pretty invincible, we decided to make the most of lugging around our camping gear in a country filled with mindblowing treks through the Andes. A photo of
Rainbow Mountain/Cerro Colorado that had popped up on Instagram pre-trip inspired us to set our plans towards finding and conquering it. Turns out that Rainbow Mountain is a fairly new discovery in the world of tourism, so there aren’t yet many way to find it without joining a tour group. Of course, Orion and I aren’t tour group type travelers so we scoured the internet for other options.
I eventually came across a trekking loop a few hours south of Cusco called the
Ausangate Circuit. I scanned blogs and maps for about an hour and had a plan. We would take a bus to
Tinke/Ocangate, a very small town that doesn’t see many foreigners, and start the 4-6 day trek from there. The circuit moves around the towering mountain/glacier of Ausangate, sitting something like
19,000 feet and covered in
snow year round. It includes 5 passes. Aside from the staggering statistics, the trail also passes by multiple lakes that all take on a different
hue based on the sediment feeding it. Best part: there is an offshoot that leads to Rainbow Mountain if you’re willing to add a 10 hour day of hiking, another pass (twice), and asking locals to point the way along the unmarked trail.
So with 1 hour of preparation for one of the most difficult treks in Peru, we left Cusco with our packs and took a 3 hour bus to Tinki. Our morning was off to a late start as we needed to find more propane, lentils, and oats, so by the time we arrived to the sleepy town of Tinki, we opted to stay at the only hostel in town (a family owned joint with 2 extra bedrooms). A group of college students on the road had told us that their group was scheduled to hike the circuit but they had to change plans as the weather report was looking like there would be a lot of snow and rain. With the looming grey clouds shrouding the goliath of Ausangate, it didn’t seem far fetched.
Tinki, like many small towns in Peru, is really hard on a vegetarian diet. Despite selling lentils
and quinoa in the markets, not every restaurant will serve them. When we went from place to place asking for vegetarian food, the responses were “No” or that they couldn’t understand us (many adults in Peru only speak Quechua). So we asked the hostel family if we could use their kitchen. They brought a giant propane tank, box of matches, and a burner up to us. We really underestimated the high altitude on cooking and our lentil, quinoa, vegetable soup took nearly 2 hours to cook. However, in the meantime we had met Ruth and Dan from Manchester, a couple staying in the other room and planning to hike Ausangate as well. Fortunately, Dan and Ruth were much better prepared – like A LOT – and were willing to let us tag along with them and their map. They even had a trail to Rainbow Mountain marked out! The four of us sat outside around our slow-cooking soup and had an intention setting ceremony for the upcoming journey.
The following morning we set out for the trail around 8:45AM. Day one was set to be
Tinki to Upis, where we would camp and lounge in
hot springs.
Waking up to snow
Snow on the ground. Ausangate is completely covered by fog in the background. Easy enough, as the beginning of the trail was actually a dirt road with a gradual incline. My pack felt unusually heavy and I was getting butt cramps and the sun was hot. Things were simple to start, passing grazing alpacas, farming Quechan locals, and slowly making our way toward the massive snowy mountain that would serve as our compass.
However, eventually
the trail started to disappear. We found ourselves walking across a huge wet plain that was most definitely private properties. Then it started to
hail. We stopped to put on our raincovers and immediately set off toward the mountain again. We couldn’t see where the “trail” ended, but it had to be near as we were supposed to hike for 3-4 hours that day and it was already nearing 1:00. At some point I stepped in a puddle (imagine marshlands) and my socks got soaked. I panicked as I knew that it would be too cold for them to dry and I was now down to wearing my sleeping sock for tomorrow’s hike.
After what seemed to me like a death march we finally turned a bend and found
Upis camping grounds,
complete with steaming baths bubbling in the distance. We set up our tents at the very first flat spot we found, ate a little something and then headed toward the thermal baths – oh, it was hailing again by the way. Frigid but exhilarated, we sat in the super hot (and dirty) baths for maybe 30 minutes and then made our way back to the tents. Understanding that it was too cold to be outside, we each resided ourselves to our tiny homes for dinner and sleeping.
Note: split peas DO NOT cook in high altitude. Orion and I spent almost 2 hours waiting for them to soften before we finally said “fuck it” and ate them anyway at the risk of our stomachs being upset. I was frozen solid, Orion’s ankle was hurt, and the food we were lugging was not cookable in the high altitude (even after 2 hours of soaking).
It was an uncomfortable, below freezing night complete with hail/snow and wind gusts. At one point I got out to pee and could see the Milky Way streaking across the finally clear sky, but all I could think about was the
cold.
When morning rolled around and the ground had a fresh layer of snow, Orion and I had to make the difficult decision not to continue (read more about it on my blog). His ankle was screwed up and he couldn’t put on his boots. My gloves, hat, and socks were all wet and I couldn’t get myself warm. Our single hour of preparing for the trek left us without adequate warm clothing and gear, cookable food, and our bodies had laid down the law and were not continuing.
Wishing Ruth and Dan “Buena suerte”, we watched them head off toward the mountain and opted to take another dip in the springs to warm our bones. Orion and I then grabbed the campstove and some pasta and headed in the direction of the mountain to eat lunch along the trail we wouldn’t complete. A local “campesino” farmer joined us as we ate and asked if we would gift him our Nalgene bottles (we couldn’t).
Around 12:30 Orion and started walking back across the field toward the road back to Tinke, hoping to get picked up by a truck or random taxi heading back to town. Unfortunately, no cars drove by and we walked the entire 3-4 hour way back. Feeling utterly worked and defeated we caught a bus to Cusco.
I wish I could say our day got easier from here, but it definitely didn’t. We did get to have dinner at our favorite vegan restaurants (
Prasada Vegan Temple on Choquechaka in Cusco), but it took us nearly 3 hours to find a hostel that had beds for a decent price and hot water that happened to be open after 10:30pm. Ultimately we ended up in a shithole that had gross beds, no hot water, no internet, and was noisy. But
it’s an adventure, right?
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Claire Dean
non-member comment
Trekking the Ausangate with a responsible travel company
It's such a shame that you didn't get to finish the Ausangate circuit on this occasion, hopefully you will come back and do it all one day! I loved your blog as it really gives an insight into how difficult this trek can be! The trails around the Ausangate are constantly changing, depending on the weather conditions and even experienced guides can get into trouble! This is why it's a really good plan to do this trek a reputable company who know the trek well and the challenges that may come about, as well as taking the adequate equipment and have an emergency procedure in place for when the conditions do get the better of you! Apu Peru have been operating this route for over 15 years now and is one of our favourite areas to trek in Cusco. Our guides are from the Ausangate region and know the area like the back of their hand. We offer tailormade , private treks or even special "clean-up" treks for a discounted rate where we clean up the routes from garbage, with the aim to maintain this pristine region and help the local people keep their communities free from the litter left by some trekkers and agencies who visit the area :( You can see more here https://www.apus-peru.com/blog/being-handy-in-the-andes-why-apus-peru-clean-up-treks-are-special). Great blog, thank you!