UKC

Hi,
My friends and I are planning a trip to Peru In July and are planning on climbing Alpamayo & Quitaraju. We are looking for some advice.

When using porters, donkeys & camp guards do you need to supply them with shelter and food? what type of shelter did you use for them? hire of a tent? what food for them? do you need to supply stoves and cooking equipment etc?

What is the normal camp for the porters and camp guard to stay at when we are climbing higher up on the col camp? do they stay at basecamp or moraine camp? We are not planning on using porters to get our kit to the higher col camp.

In reply to Drew52:


Depends on the arriero, I've always gone to the trailhead with enough time to have a decent chat (they are unlikely to speak English,) with them that gives time to negotiate out things like this. If you book from huaraz then you aren't so sure what you're going to get. The drawback is that if you arrive the same day as a big trip heads off, there won't be and spare donkeys, though they will do their best it is all good work!


There is (was in 2009, but they were getting keen about the park then,) a building at base camp that sold some sweeties and beer (!) And we paid them a little to look after our base camp bag for us. I don't know if arrieros would stay while you were on the hill, they have more work they can do.

You can always try getting in touch with one of the guiding companies in huaraz (or Jo's Place, an English expat who keeps his finger on the pulse, if he is still there,) if you want to give yourself a bit more confidence? I prefer to give myself a few extra days to sort it myself, we needed it after the leaving do for alpamayo at trece buhos became a spirited night out with two out of the three of us under the weather the next day from "food poisoning," so our departure was put back a day... I'd recommend the ceviche in huaraz, breakfasts at California cafe and be wary of coca beer at trece buhos!

In reply to jonnie3430:

Thanks Jonnie

In reply to Drew52:

Summitpost may also be a good place to look for information; http://www.summitpost.org/alpamayo/150466

In reply to jonnie3430:
How do you go about getting a weather forecast when up on the mountain or at the lower camps?

In reply to Drew52:


You look at the sky to see what's going on up there
I don't know if such things exist, I never came accross any in my 2 trips there. I guess if you could connect to the internet you might be able to get some idea but I've no idea what the chances of a phone signal would be like, probably quite low?
Fortunately the weather is generally pretty stable and electrical storms extremely rare, one of the benefits of climbing there.

Actually. I've just googled it and forecasts do exist
http://www.yr.no/place/Peru/Ancash/Cordillera_Blanca/
But you've still got to get a connection

In reply to pec:



This, although it worked on the first trip it didn't on the second August (their winter?) and wasn't the blue skies expected. We went for it any way and got caught in snow on high camp for 3 days, so no quitaraju or artesonraju.

For acclimatisation, nevado pisco is good, I'd prefer nevado ishinca, as you can go for urus and tocclaraju (spelling?) from the same base camp. Both have refuges (Alpine style huts,) at the basecamp, toilets, etc.

In reply to jonnie3430:


Yes, big mountains can always have bad weather but how you access a forecast from base camp or above and how reliable it is could be anybody's guess.
In general the weather is very stable there and threatening clouds still usually amount to nothing, but proceed at your own risk!
El Nino years, which seem to be increasingly frequent will typically have less stable weather though.