Monday, January 11, 2010

dos lagunas trek

from sorata we found a guide (or actually a guide found us) to do the 3 day dos lagunas (2 lakes) trek up into the mountains below the second and third highest peaks in bolivia, illampu and anchohuma.

the first day we hiked up out of sorata to laguna chillata, about 6 miles and 4,900 ft elevation gain. luckily the guide, willy, provided a pack mule to carry our packs. it would've been a brutal hike with so much elevation gain at that altitude. we got to camp just in time, set up our tent before the daily summer thunderstorm. it poured rain for over an hour. that evening due to user error of the camelbak on my part, i managed to drain half a liter of water onto erick's sleeping bag and over my stuff. erick had to deal with the wet down bag for the next two nights.

the next morning we woke up to clear skies and beautiful views of the mountains, which were obscured by fog and clouds the night before. set out on a dayhike to laguna glacial at 16,500 ft (5,028 m). about an hour after we set out the clouds started coming in. after 3 hours of hiking and 2,200 ft elevation gain, we were still an hour and a half from the lake. the weather was turning and the trail was getting more sketchy, lots of slab and exposed rock. i wussed out and decided to turn around because i knew i wouldn't be able to make it to the lake and back to camp before the afternoon thunderstorms came and i didn't want to downclimb the slick slabs in the rain. erick decided to turn around as well. it started sprinkling when we got close to camp. shortly after it started raining for 5 1/2 hours then on and off the rest of the night.

third day we set out after breakfast with the mule for the 3 1/2 hour, 4,900 ft descent back down to sorata. painful on the knees.

it was a nice trek even if we didn't make it to laguna glacial. our guide was really good and we somehow managed to somewhat communicate in spanish. nice views when the sun was out.

No comments: