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Trek Santa Cruz, first trek in solo

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Trek Santa Cruz, first trek in solo

Total mileage : 33.8 miles in 4 days
Total elevation gain : 8,070 feet

SANTA CRUZ TREK

The Santa Cruz trek is located in the Huascaran National Park and crosses the Cordillera Blanca from East to West. It is known to be one of the most beautiful treks in the world. During this 33.8 mile trek we will go as high as 15,584 feet and it will take us 4 days (some people actually do it in only 3 days). Far from any village or trace of civilization, the trek offers breathtaking views. During 4 days, we will walk among green prairies with water streams coming directly from the glaciers around, and valleys surrounded by snow capped summits and with only companions cows and donkeys (and alpacas if you are lucky).

To do this trek two options are offered to us:

1) doing it in solo, meaning we will need to pack all our clothes, camping material and food (we eventually chose this option)

2) or doing it through a travel agency and be part of a guided group. The camping material and food are all taken care of and everything is being carried by donkeys so you only need to pack snacks and water for the day.
Leaving for 4 days requires a minimum of preparation. Indeed we needed to bring our clothes, all the camping material and all the food, considering that we would need to carry everything so weight was a huge factor. Our last day in Huaraz was dedicated to the entire backpack prep.
Without going too much into the details, we brought the strict minimum in terms of clothing knowing we wouldn’t shower for 4 days. We made sure to bring all the warmest things we had (and as you will see we were still cold) as well as all our camping gear. In terms of food we took advice from other bloggers who had done the trek in solo before and went for a chocolate oats mix for breakfast (very nourishing but it was a real torture for Maider to eat that every morning, she simply hated it). For lunch we simply had ham and cheese sandwiches with hard boiled eggs, and finally for dinner we had instant soup mixed with instant noodles. Matt was really dubious regarding this last mix before leaving. It turns out it was both our favorite meal of the day! The taste is actually better than expected and having something warm to eat at night felt so good. On top of all that, we had some sort of trail mix and cereal bars to snack along the way. After our 4 days we can proudly say that we finished everything we brought and never felt hungry (except of course for the oats mix, we will have to review the recipe otherwise Maider will want to throw up each time she has to eat this again!).

Day 1 : VAQUERIA –  PARIA

(we actually went a little further than Paria)

4h30 hike during the day
3,280 ft total elevation gain and 1,640 ft elevation loss
8.7 miles total

The alarm clock is set to 4am as we need to hop in the first collectivo from Huaraz to Yungay at 5am.

After an hour in the collectivo we get to Yungay where we need to catch our second collectivo of the day to reach Vaqueria and the beginning of the trail. In this second collectivo are only people like us doing the Santa Cruz trek in solo as well, at least we know we will not be all alone. Given that the collectivo is completely full we have no choice but to attach our bags on the roof of the bus. The driver jumps on the roof and starts to put all our bags and ties everything nice and tight (we only keep Maider’s bag on our laps).

The route between Yungay and Vaqueria last about 3 hours and brings us on small torturous dirt roads but the views are fantastic. The first part of the road is actually the same one we took to go to the Laguna 69.

We finally get to Vaqueria around 10am and can start our trek. We start by joining a river downhill and then uphill again walking past small villages and getting to the park’s entrance after about an hour hike. We need to register ourselves and show that we paid the park entrance fee and are free to continue.

Fun fact, once again a dog starts following us and decides to accompany us on our trek for over 2 hours! Impossible to get rid of him and he finally went back when we stopped for lunch…

After the park entrance it took us about 3 hours to get to Paria at 12,500 ft altitude which is supposed to be the end of day 1.

But seeing that it is only 1pm, and that we feel fine, we decide to push a little further until the next campsite we can see on the map. The campsite isn’t one of the park’s official campsite which means we won’t have any of the organized groups with us. The goal is to do as much as we can today since we know that day 2 will be brutal with the Punta Union cross pass at 15,600 ft altitude.

According to the map, the second campsite is only 1.8 miles away which should take only an hour. But the fatigue starts to kick in and the map isn’t totally accurate. In the end it takes us 1h30 to hike 2.5 miles with 1,640 ft elevation gain. We are completely toasted but glad we did it on day one, less to hike the next day. It’s at 13,780 ft altitude that we set camp and put up our tent for the night without thinking one second that we are about to live our worst night of the trek.

Indeed, being surrounded by mountains is beautiful, but around 4pm the sun is already bellow the summits and we don’t have the sun to heat us anymore.

The tent is up and everything is set so not much we can do. After a few minutes of waiting around, we start to feel the cold. Since the sun sets around 6pm we decide to make dinner around 5:30 and at that point we are freezing (we have our hat, gloves and softshell on but we are still very cold). The heat of the warm soup is very welcome at that point.

At 6pm the cold in unbearable and we decide to go in the tent and then starts the worst night of the trek. At 7pm we decide to go to sleep (keep in mind we woke up at 4 am and hiked almost 9 miles that day) but Maider can’t fall asleep because of the cold. She stays awake for another 3 hours wondering how she will make it through the night. At that point we decide (it’s actually Matt’s idea) to sleep both in the same sleeping bag. And it clearly worked, we were a little tight in there but Maider was finally warm and was able to get some sleep.

Day 2 : PARIA –  PUNTO UNION – TAULLIPAMPA

3h50 hike on the day
1,970 ft elevation gain and 2,260 ft elevation loss
5 miles total
Punto Union cross pass at 15,600 ft altitude

After a tough first night Maider had only one thought : to get out of the tent and start walking to get warm again. On top of the freezing night, Maider started the trek with a cold and a runny nose which doesn’t help… After getting out of the tent we realize that the night was really cold, somebody next to us left a water bottle outside and the water was completely frozen!! Around 7:30 am we decide to start packing and cooking breakfast despite the cold. As mentioned, we heated some water to put in our oats mix, and we’re all excited to try it for the first time… excitement only lasted a second for Maider who didn’t like it at all. Thankfully we had our coca leaves infusion to keep us warm and give us energy for the day to come.

The sun finally comes out around 8:15 and warms us up a little. We are finally a little more active and leave for our second day at 8:45 am.

Very quickly the trail starts climbing to the cross pass and we are really glad we walked an extra hour and a half the day before.

The climb is really steep so we make sure to do a lot if little breaks to drink and eat a little something. In the end, we cross the pass at 15,600 ft pretty easily. We are not saying that the climb was easy but given what we had read, we were expecting something a lot harder. Again, deciding to walk a little more on day 1 most certainly helped us feel good!
At the top we feel so good and proud of ourselves. We now know that the hardest is behind us and the view up top is simply amazing.

Of course we take our mandatory picture at the top to prove that we really were up there and we can finally start going downhill to our next campsite.

A few donkeys overtake us carrying absolutely all the material for the guided groups doing the trek as well. At that point we feel bad for the poor donkeys and are glad that we are doing this in solo and carrying everything on our own.

After a pretty quick downhill journey, we arrive at the Taullipampa campsite at 13,950 ft altitude early afternoon.

Matt finds us a great spot protected from the wind and far from the guided groups.

The night is nothing as cold as the previous one and we are able to both sleep in our separate sleeping bags and get a good night of sleep.

Day 3 : TUALLIMAMPA –  LAGUNA ARHUAYCOCHA – LLAMACORAL

6h hike on the day
985 ft elevation gain and 1,960 elevation loss
13.7 miles total

Difficult start for Maider who is getting even more sick by the day. Pretty big headache and a sore throat, and the cold outside doesn’t help. BUT she is motivated and ready to go on this third day which will be the longest of the trek. After another oats based breakfast (still a nightmare for Maider) we walk to the mirador that offers great views of the surrounding mountains.

We can actually see from here the Artesonraju which is the summit that Paramount chose as its logo.

Once at the mirador, we can walk an extra 1.8 miles to reach a lagoon that is supposed to be beautiful. Now that Maider is a little warmer and is in a far better mood than when we woke up, we decide to go for it. 1.8 miles later and having gained 985 ft in elevation we get to the lagoon.

Despite the clouds the scenery is beautiful, the turquoise-blue water is surrounded by snow capped summits.

There is even a glacier that falls directly in the lagoons.

We are glad we came all the way up here! As we go down to our next campsite we stop for a quick lunch overlooking a large plain that is very dry and that we will have to go through next. This part isn’t the most fun as there are a lot of rocks and a lot of sand. Not the easiest to walk in.

But after that the scenery becomes green again, there are several rivers and lagoons until we reach the campsite.

And there, surprise! There was a guy selling beer and other snacks! Even if it was overpriced we had to treat ourselves to a nice cold beer. What better could you dream of after walking for almost 14 miles?

For this last night, Matt found us an amazing spot protected from all winds and we spent an incredible night. The temperatures are finally higher (after all we are spending the night at 11,800 ft altitude instead of 13,780 ft the previous two nights) and we spend our first night without being cold at all.

The sky being bright, we got treated to plenty of stars and a beautiful moon.

Day 4 : LLAMACORAL –  CASHAPAMPA –  HUARAZ

2h40 hike on the day
3,640 ft elevation loss and 984 elevation gain.
5.6 miles total

Last day of the trek. After a really good night we are fully rested and ready to go. We feel great aside for a few blisters on our feet. Since we only have 3 hours to walk we decide to skip the oats mix for today (Maider is relieved) instead we grab an energy bar and off we go.

The beginning is beautiful, we walk past a number of streams and waterfalls.

After that the trail is pretty steep and we have to be careful not to fall or slip on the rocks, the entire way to Cashapampa is downhill so our ankles and knees suffer a bit.

After 2h45 we finally get to Cashapampa. We are exhausted but so glad that we made it! This will definitely stay as one of the highlights of our trip.

It’s after taking two different collectivos that we reach Huaraz in the afternoon. Very happy to finally find a bed and a shower! And for our last night in Huaraz all we want is junk food, Inca Cola all while watching some bad movie on Netflix.
One last day in Huaraz to chill and work in the blog before taking a night bus back to Lima.