Every day, when I look out the window or go out of my house, I see a big mountain through the canyon. I climbed one track a couple of times and found the Inca ruins at an altitude of about 11,500 feet, and also realized that the trail continued to a new road that climbed to the top of the mountain from the other side, and then to some other villages. Later I rode my bike along the road, it took about 2 hours to cross the path, but I didn’t have time to go any further. The next week I took another path and climbed to the top of the mountain, this is actually the edge of the canyon, and behind it is a rocky high plain. I went to the nearest high point, which was 14,200 feet. It is at an altitude of 5,400 feet above my house.
From there I had a beautiful view of the Canyon, the village of Kotahuasi and the peak with snow-capped mountains. Solimana through the canyon on the other edge. I also saw the road going from the back, and knew that one of my next walks would have to be on the road, my first “14er” on a bicycle! When I talk about the road, do not think of anything as a good asphalt mountain road in the USA, we are talking about a narrow gravel road, like fire roads going up through the mountains in Southern California. It was summer, but the rainy season, and usually rain clouds come from this direction during the day. I decided to try it on Wednesday, after about a week, but when I woke up at 6:30, it was very cloudy and it looked like it would rain early. However, by 8:00 it started to clear up, so I decided to go for it.
It was 9:05, before I finally left my house, and it turned into a beautiful, but cool morning. I knew it would be cold from the top, so I would put my tights on my bike shorts. The first 20 minutes is a technical single track that descends into a canyon, crosses a lively suspension bridge, and then climbs back to the road. This is a walk. On the way from my house it takes about 40 minutes. From there it's about 10 minutes on the road down to another canyon, and then the climb begins. However, before I got to the second bridge, I had a flat tire. There are cacti everywhere of all kinds, and all have unpleasant thorns. In any case, I only had two freshly repaired repair tubes with me, so I hoped that I would be fine on the road. I found one spike and removed it, fortunately, I spent the extra time checking the tires and found two more spikes before putting in a new tube. I had up to five holes in one tube when I went to the patch!
For the next 1 hour, I was roasting, but did not stop to take off my tights, because I thought it would be cooler now. About two o'clock from the very beginning, I walked through the small village of Kochapampa at an altitude of about 10,500 feet, where I drew a lot of attention from some of the children the first time I drove up. I think I must have been the first biker they ever saw riding. This time a group of little girls looked at me and ran away, screaming as if they had seen a monster! Just outside the village, a new road opens, and about 10 minutes after a flat ride around the hill, it begins to rise again. Looking ahead, there was nothing but long passages heading up the side of a mountain.
For some reason I didn’t feel very strong or motivated on that day, and at that moment I wasn’t sure if I would do it on top. I stopped for lunch at an altitude of 10,750 feet and decided to set a goal of 13,000 feet and see what time it was then and what the weather looked like. At first, I set a time at 3:00 pm, because soon after that it started to rain. One of the problems with having an altimeter clock during climbing is that I continue to monitor it to see how fast I rise. It’s like watching a pot waiting for it to boil, very slowly! It seemed to take forever from 11,000 to 13,000 feet, but I finally did it with numerous rest stops along the way. At that moment I saw where the road passed along the edge of the canyon, and it was too close to the turn, so I kept walking. I got to the edge before 3:00 pm, but my joy turned into moans when I realized that I was only about 13,800 feet.
The road was still climbing gradually, so I continued walking, striving towards the high point of the road up the road. The good news was that at that moment it was not a very steep road, so it was easy to drive, the bad news was that at that moment there was no very steep road, so I didn’t get much elevation! I culminated at exactly 3:00, five hours and 55 minutes from the start, but it was only 13,950 feet. I was now only about 50 feet from the edge of the canyon facing Kotahuasi (I climbed to the back), so I went to enjoy the view and see if I could climb this point (it looked difficult) and also hope that my watch " catch up "and register more than 14,000 feet, but it is not. At that moment, the road descended again, and the next high spot was probably a few miles away. & # 39;
The weather was cloudy and cool, but the rain did not look inevitable, so I continued. At 3:08, I drove more than 14,000 feet, but decided to continue to the top. After a couple of minutes, I was on a narrow flat-topped ridge and could look down the road I had just taken, and also a few miles to the place where I had climbed a week earlier. The altitude here was 14,140 feet, and the road marker showed that I was located 14 km from Cochapampa. I climbed about 6,000 vertical feet in about 15 miles and already wondered what my next goal should be (besides that, faster). The road continues on a high plateau in about five hours by car to Oiolo or goes in another direction, it goes near the base of Mt. Soliman about 15 500 feet.
By this time I felt cold, I had my pants and fleece jacket, added a windbreaker and a hat under my helmet, and I went downstairs, wanting me to pull out my gloves too. You might think that I would remember that I used to do a brake thing with a cold, numb-white joint, descending from similar loose gravel switches from the other side. Fortunately, that day was not so cold, and I soon descended to lower and warmer heights. Two hours and 40 minutes from the top, I returned to my house without any problems (except that I scared the girls again), but continued to walk along the only path because I was very tired, there is a very unforgiving drop 150 to 200 feet on one side rivers. In fact, I also went further up the hill on one track. After nine hours it was great to be home for a warm meal, a cold orange drink and a hot shower, pleasantly drained. The next day I climbed about 22 miles to the village descending line (but upwards), returning the next day, but this is another story.
