The first few kilometers of a climb are always tricky: stiff legs from the previous day mean it’s a while till I find my rhythm. Then a song lyric lodges in my brain – sometimes it’s from Sunday School (“rise and shine and give God the…” pedal pedal); more often it’s Bobby D’s “the answer my friend is…” pedal pedal pedal. At this stage the cycling is easy. My legs work effortlessly like pistons as my Long Haul Trucker meanders up the hillside.
Then 4,000m strikes. Even with no altimeter I know we’ve reached it. My mouth begins to open further and further, like a Tour rider stuggling to suck in more oxygen. My thighs turn to plasticene. A gradient below 7% is fine – my meander becomes a drunk sway, but I continue to spin. Anything over 10% and my chest heaves, my head pulsates and my plasticene-excuse-for-legs scream ‘STOP’. My gears won’t go any lower and even if they did my lungs wouldn’t cope with the increased cadence. I grind up one hairpin and stop and gasp….crawl up the next and pretend that I simply must take a photo. The famous Fickling grit-teeth put in an appearance. Grrrr I will get up this pass.
Then we’re at the top. We’ve cycled up a road. Well done us. Weeeeeeeee……
Most recently we looped Huascaran, over Portachuelo de Llanganuco and Punta Olimpica, two of the most spectacular road passes in the Andes. Sadly the weather wasn’t particularly cooperative – more sleet than sun, more mist than mountains. We took a few photos anyway.
In the Callejon de Huaylas, near Yungay. As this was late May, the hillsides were still a radiant green, splashed with colourful wild-flowers.
Patchwork fields in the Cordillera Blanca. Steep gradients don’t seem to stop the local campesinos from cultivating the hillsides. Near vertical? Nae bother!
The Llanganuco Lakes are one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Cordillera Blanca. We spent a windy night camped by their shores, before heading up to a sleety Portachuelo Llanganuco.
Looking back at the Llanganuco Lakes on the climb to the Portachuelo. The sinuous road up to this pass is one of the most spectacular we’ve ever cycled. If only we could’ve seen the mountains…
Climbing to Portachuelo de Llanganuco, with Huascaran looming above. Not often you can cycle this close to glaciers!
Descending from Punta Olimpica, Huascaran’s summit again in cloud. The warning sign isn’t just there just for dramatic effect – last year an unfortunate pair were killed when their vehicle was swept away by an avalanche.
Punta Olimpica: probably the best road pass in the world.
To see some much more beautiful photos of the route in good weather, check out James and Sarah’s and Anna’s photos – some cycling friends we’ve been hanging out with here in Huaraz.
Incredible pass – thanks for sharing your internal landscapes and the external scenery!
Hey Mateo! Thanks for your poetic comment! x
Gorgeous! We’re looking forward to trying something similar when we get down there (still in Guatemalan Highlands). Nice to hear you linked up with the Big Sur. We follow their blog as well and recently saw some of their beautiful photos from the same area. Do you recommend (specifically) this time of year for a trip like this or is also doable around December-ish?
Hi Lars!
We’d definitely recommend doing the circuit of Huascaran – it’s one of the most beautiful cycle routes in the Andes. December isn’t the best time though as it’s rainy/snowy season. You might get lucky and have a few consecutive days of good weather at that time though. And it’s normally clearer in the mornings in rainy season, so if you can get up to the passes early you’re more likely to get the spectacular views.
Enjoy the rest of Guatemala!
Hello Pikes! I just noticed you replied to my comment a while ago, but I didn’t get a notification. Indeed, I figured it would be a no-go in the rainy season, but wasn’t sure just how bad those conditions can be. I think we can shift our plans around to get us into Huaraz region sometime in April 2014. I read that this should be nearing the end of the rainy season, no? In your opinion, would it be worth attempting in April if that is the only month we do it? We can’t really push it later than April due to other commitments (y dinero!).
Hola hola,
April should be fine, or so the locals we’ve been chatting to seem to think. There are still plenty of rainy (snowy) days then, but if you can hang around a few days you’d be unfortunate not to get a good weather window. Not sure about cycling over the top of Pta Olimpica though. They opened a tunnel a few hundred metres from the real pass back in July, and the road over the top has already fallen into disrepair. We were there a few weeks ago and had to push quite a bit to get over the top. There was loads of snow around though (even in high season the road gets blocked!). People have told us the authorities are going to try and keep the road open for tourist traffic, but I’m kinda sceptical that that will happen..
I thought it was only me that felt like that at altitude! Somehow I imagined you guys must be magically immune to plasticine legs and oxygen hungry lungs.
Sadly not immune…though after months at altitude it does become a lot lot easier!