Over Dead Womans Pass

Saturday August 22, 2009:

Today we face the biggest challenge of the trip - climbing the 4,000 ft over Warmi Manuska (Dead Woman´s Pass). This took us about 5 hours of straight slogging up hill. The group tended to split up a bit due to differing levels of fitness. One guide tended to forge ahead with the most intrepid hikers (Scott, Brad, Matthew, Brett and Hugh) with the rest of the boys in the middle group. Dr. Roy followed the group just in case their were any accidents or the like.

We hiked through a short section of cloud forest today with some very lush vegetation and flowers. Again there were some small villages and rest stops for the boys to buy water and drinks.

At the end of the uphill portion, three of the boys charged up the last of the hill to even beat the guide. The view from the pass was great, we could even see the starting point for our hike today and where this evenings camp will be located. There was a fair bit of wind on top to we had to add a layer.

After the pass it was downhill to our camp. Everything was set up when we arrived and the porters all clapped when each camper arrived. The porters are a lot of fun and like to fool around a bit.

Today´s dinner was corn soup with vegetables, Alpaca stew, quinoa and vegetables. The cook also prepared a large cake with chocolate icing as today is Bill´s birthday. It was just great. When you look into the cooking tent there are about four people preparing the meals over one or perhaps two two-burner camp stoves. It is just amazing what they can whip up for the hikers and the rest of our troop.