UKC

hello all,
im off to peru in August for some climbing and wandering around, anyone know the best place to buy some decent maps from. Should i get them in lima or huarez?
I think we are off to do the alpamayo base camp trek as an acclimatisation process then on to the ishinca valley to climb urus and then TOCLLARAJU.
Any other reccomendations for when we are knackered and sick of tent living, mad stuff to see and touristy areas to avoid?
Cheers everyone
Andy

In reply to mr conners:

The Alpinevereinsmap (sp) is now avaialble for the north and south Blanca.

It can be obtained from Stanfords in Covent Garden - I think they do internetweok sales.

All you will get out there is the orgingal "road map" and several inferior copies.

See you there

In reply to mr conners:

Don't stay in Lima for longer than you have to - its pretty grim!

In reply to mr conners:
Hi, I'm off to Peru in August as well and we're planning to do Maparaju and San Juan and then Tocclaraju also. Do you have any news on the conditions of the mountain at the moment?

Re maps, we got our last year from England but you can get one in Huaraz...don't do it in Lima, not a nice place to hang around to be honest. Anything you need you can find in Huaraz.

In reply to moreno:

Conditions: there's been a lot of unseasonal snow in the last few weeks (after virtually none in the snowy season). Backed off Artisanraju last week as a result. Rain/snow usually in the afternoon at least every other day.

For what it's worth, we've attempted/done:

Maparaju (backed off bad weather)
Ishinca
Urus Este
Atrisanraju (backed off deep snow)

Off to attempt Churrup tomorrow - snow shouldn't be too much of a problem.

By the way, does anyone know if there are trout in Laguna Churrup?

In reply to John Rushby: The Alpinevereinsmap (sp) NORTH is now available in every other shop on the main drag in Huraz (or was last week). The South version is like gold dust at the minute (out of print) but to be honest, you don't really need them: if your climbing you get the info from the guide books, if you're trecking the paths are well defined and you'll probably get away with the "touristy" maps.

PJ

In reply to PJ:

Is it, I guess is would be, it was only just out in Europe last year.

I agree most of the access paths are well marked and the guide books, especially Brads are as good as the map, but there is nothing more satisfying than sitting on the top of a ridge or route with the map in hand gazing across at everything.

In reply to John Rushby: The only thing we were gazing at this year was the hail poinding our faces: weather out there is diar at the minute, only 1 out of the 17 days it was clear, the rest of the time was hail / snow / rain (yup rain up to 4800m!)

In reply to PJ:

Sorry to hear that mate. I am going out in late August, a bit late inthe season I know but it might pick up.

the weather last year was wierd, a dry wet season and a wet dry season. May and June was very cloudy. We became the most popular tent in the Blanca due to the large tarp we had rigged up and the catering pack of tea bags.

In reply to mr conners:
Cheers for that, weather sounds pretty shitty
But hoping to make best of it, i have heard from loads of folk that Lima is a dodgy dump (no worse than Manchester then !) and its best to leave asap.
Is hotel Espana any good as thats where we are heading for the first 2 nights before we meet up with our German altitude master before the escape to huarez!