Tobogganing

Daytrip out to Pastoruri Glacier today with a bunch of friendly people all staying at Churup. I had expected this to be a drive, look up at glacier, say "oooh", and return home trip.


Glacial (in)action

Little did I realise we would be climbing the damn thing!!


We were warned!

We started by scrabbling up a very slippery steep ice face, before hitting more manageable snow. We trudged up, the snow getting deeper and deeper, and a thunderstorm approaching. By the time we were nearing the top, it was a case of wading through knee deep snow in the blizzard, which as you can imagine was extremely tiring for the person in front, making the footholes (we took turns!).


Not...easy...!

The top (well almost, we didn't want to be on the peak in case a stray bolt of lightning joined the tea party) was a whopping 5182m high, the highest I've ever been on land! Woo hoo!! [GPS: 09.91733S, 77.17845W]. I was a bit out of breath, but otherwise good. No obvious altitude issues, nothing that couldn't be explained away by being unfit anyway!

After reaching the top, thankfully the snow eased up. Group photos were had, and snacks consumed.


Almost failed to outrun the camera timer


Pretty!

We headed down, where lots of Peruvians were using the glacier as a tobogganing slope! It seemed like a big group was on a winter holiday - they were building snowmen, and had come equipped with sheets of plastic to slide down on. We hadn't.


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Nothing for it, then, but on to our God-given backside and off we go! I went careering down the slope, almost taking out the chap in front of me. Rather wet and sore botty by the end, I have to say. Underneath the glacier at the point we came off was a pretty ice cave, though we weren't allowed inside.


Underneath the glacier

Back to the mini-bus, with wet feet, wet backside, wet backpack but a smile :)