Sunday 23/06/2019 Laguna Churup
Huascarán National Park, PERU
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report), Elva Marcos Campos (guide)
Laguna Churup is a popular but relatively uncrowded walk which is reasonably close to Huraraz. It is not necessary to have a guide for this walk but a private car needs to be organised for drop off and pick up. National park entry fees of 30 soles (about $13) per person needs to be paid at the car park. The toilet costs 1 sole (about 40c).
Max elevation: 4472 m
Total climbing: 1235 m
Total descent: -1236 m
Average speed: 2.80 km/h
Total time: 06:05:36
This was our first official acclimatisation walk with Inkaland Treks and we were led by our female guide, pocket rocket, Elva. We were picked up at 7:30am in a private car and had Elva all to ourselves.
Elva took off fairly quickly from the start but we needed to walk much slower as this was only our third day since coming from sea level. The walk started at Pitek, elevation 3,860m . Steve and I were puffing and panting like we were super unfit so we knew we needed to take it really slowly. The trail is a well defined and gradual ascent until the waterfall. From there the fun and scrambling began!
Nevado Churup
Once we started climbing, taking bigger steps and using our arms there was just not enough oxygen in the air. We had to slow down even more and take frequent breaks to catch our breath. There were cables and some rubber tubing to assist our climb and it normally would not be too difficult for us. We eventually reached the top and the views of the stunning lake made all the huffing and puffing worthwhile.
We climbed slightly higher for a better viewpoint where we soaked in the scenery and enjoyed our lunch. We stayed there for about an hour which also assisted our acclimatisation. We were given the option of climbing to a higher viewpoint but decided that the views wouldn’t be much better so we decided to head back.
Our descent involved going an “easier” way which again involved scrambling but without any cables. It was all good fun. Going down was much easier of course and we arrived at the waiting car at about 2:30pm.
It was a stunning day walk in the beautiful Huascarán National Park.
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