Alpamayo Expedition

Day 1 is arrival day. We’ll be picking you up from the airport and checking you into our hotel in the Miraflores district of Lima. Our first official event will be dinner at 7 pm followed by a general team briefing.

Our first full day together will include a city tour, a cultural lunch, and the opportunity to organize any missing gear or equipment before departing to the mountains. This is also an opportunity for those of us traveling from far away to readjust the biological clock. The city tour includes a visit to the San Francisco catacombs, the National Museum of Archeology, the Museum of Anthropology and History as well as several markets and piazzas around town that the Peruvian capital is famous for. Dinner will be in a restaurant nearby the hotel.

We’ll be departing Lima for arguably the most challenging portion of our trip; the 7 hour car ride to Huaraz. Luckily we’ve got a few stops planned along the way including a great spot for lunch. We typically depart early in order to arrive in daylight hours. Upon arrival, we’ll check into our hotel and have some free time to explore the town. Dinner will be at a nearby restaurant.

Our first acclimatization trek will be to the spectacular Churup Lagoon situated at 4450 meters of altitude. Typically, the trek takes the majority of the day as we’ll be taking our time to both enable our bodies to properly adjust and to enjoy the views. We’ll stop for a picnic lunch on the trail before heading back down to Huaraz. We’ll be staying at the same accommodation for a second night. Dinner will be at the hotel.

The day will begin with a transfer to Cashapama by private bus. It usually takes around 3 hours. Upon arrival, we’ll meet our porter team who’ll be handling the transportation of our tents and mountain equipment. After a brief induction with the team, we’ll begin our walk through the Santa Cruz ravine in the direction of Alpamayo. Lunch will be a picnic on the trail and dinner will be at our campsite in Llamacoral.

After breakfast, we’ll depart our camp deeper into the Santa Cruz Ravine before reaching the Icchicocha and Jatuncocha lagoons. From there, we’ll connect to a series of switchbacks that take us higher in altitude. The big mountains will become very apparent as we make our way up. Once the classic view of Alpamayo is ahead of us you’ll know for sure that we’ve finally arrived at base camp 4300 meters. This is our home for the next few days.

The aim is to depart base camp early and assist our staff to set up our forward camp at Col Del Alpamayo 5200 meters. Depending on acclimatization and the conditions on the mountain we may choose to remain at this camp or descend back down the mountain. Either way, we are now in the climbing portion of the itinerary which becomes governed by the parameters of mountaineering. We have included several reserve days within the itinerary to account for adverse weather, difficulties with acclimatization, or other considerations.

As will all high altitude technical summits, we’ll be departing in the very early hours of the morning. If the night before was spent at Col Del Alpamayo and no other considerations necessitate a delay, we can make a direct push to the top. The route averages around a 55 degree incline on steep terrain. The aim would be to summit and return directly to base camp for the night.

This day is dedicated to summiting should the previous window not be possible.

This day is dedicated to summiting should the previous window not be possible.

After breakfast, our porter team will reassemble our camp and we’ll make our way back to Llamacoral campsite lower down in the valley. The trail up is similar to the trail down so we’ll have the opportunity to revisit the lagoons and ravines with Alpamayo summit now behind us.

After breakfast, we’ll make our way down the short trail back to our bus for the 3 hour ride to Huaraz. Celebrations are certainly in order and we’ll have plenty of opportunity to do so. Dinner will be at a restaurant in town.

After breakfast, we’ll make our way back onto our long-haul transport for the ride to Lima. Lunch will be on the way. Our last meal together will be a cultural experience in the capital.

The last day together is dedicated to airport transfers and farewells. Breakfast is included on the day. Please make sure to provide us with your departure details before the first day of the trip so that arrangements can be made. We’ll be arranging your shuttle 3 hours prior to departure so please make sure to be near the hotel at the time so as not to be late. For those of us departing late, we’re happy to recommend places to visit or arrange for a city tour if you weren’t able to attend it on the first day.