UKBouldering.com

Huaraz, Peru (Read 3001 times)

screwyouI'mfromderby

Offline
  • *
  • regular
  • Posts: 59
  • Karma: +0/-0
Huaraz, Peru
July 09, 2004, 08:27:57 am
Peru is great for apline stuff and reliving Touching The Void moments when you get lost in dirty back streets.

The best boudlering I found was near the lovely town of Huaraz, in a place called Huanchac. The best thing to do is get a guide book/map and get a taxi there. The roads to the village are terrible and steep in places but you just need to trust whoever the taxi driver has chosen to display on his dashboard, they'll get you there ok. As far as coming home is concerned, ask the taxi driver to pick you up at an arranged time. I went there with someone else from the UK who I'd only jusy met and we managed to get the guy to some back and he wasn't a minute late!

The boulders are in a field, down by the stream and even though they're on someone's farm you're ok to climb there. The locals we met reckoned everything hard was about european grade 7, but you can expect about V5 at most for established problems. There isn't a guide, but just look for the chalk, or at least white, marks. A good place to get some international beta is the Californian Cafe. This place seems a bit hidden away but had a good collection of jazzy twats from the US, and scummy Europeans knocking about.

The best place to stay in Huaraz, which is the nearest civilisation, is the Churrup Hostel. It's run by Juan and his family and he's probably the nest person to ask as far as everything else you'll need goes. His Dad's very friendly and the whole lot of them will look after you when you get altitude sickness - the town itself is at about 3000m.

If you do make it there, you'll need to be self sufficient as far as gear goes. You won't be able to buy anything, but you can rent alpine and sport climbing stuff. Most of this though is second hand and has been recovered from the surrounding mountains, note that I said most, as I've headr that some places offer significantly better equipment. One very nice thing to do would be to take some chalk for the locals, they can't get it there at all and so they use baking powder or rice husks instead. For a couple of quid you can make some Peruvian boulderers very happy indeed.

Bubba

Offline
  • *****
  • Global Moderator
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 15367
  • Karma: +286/-6
#1 Huaraz, Peru
July 09, 2004, 08:39:28 am
Sounds awesome, did you get any photos?

screwyouI'mfromderby

Offline
  • *
  • regular
  • Posts: 59
  • Karma: +0/-0
#2 Huaraz, Peru
July 09, 2004, 10:32:27 am
Just a couple, barefoot on sharp as crap edges. I really wanted to buy my gear in Peru, help the economy and all that, even get a pair a bit cheaper. It seems I underestimated just how poor that place is compared to the UK and I couldn't buy shoes anywhere or even hire shoes that had been made in the last ten years.

I digress, the photos will get posted when I get home to Derby in July 2005 and I think I might have a couple nipping up something at Machu Picchu too.

 

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal