As we started climbing and the sun beat down on us we gained elevation quickly, but the road into the mountains of the highest pass (Punta Olimpica) in the Huascarán National Park was paved and gentle. Surrounded by snow capped mountains the views are breathtaking as expected and then a little more.
Climbing started at the sweet little village of Carhuaz at 2600m and by the time we hit the 3500m mark Indre and I started feeling the altitude which manifests for me in head ache and dizziness. I had read about this meadow right before the switchbacks to the pass (still another 1000m) and it opened up in front of our eye just as I was thinking I had enough....
And here we are now....the weather turned from hot and clear to cold and rainy over night. Looking back at where we came from we can see sunny blue skies and the direction we are planning to go looks dismal - we are pretty much caught right in the middle but right now we don't see much sun and it's raining. The switchbacks have disappeared in the clouds and so have the beautiful mountains east of us...probably snowing up there! No way, we are not going to ride up there!
We are all sitting in our tents, hoping the weather will change again and let us do what we had planned - so far, it doesn't look good!
We will give it another night and see in the morning. If nothing changes we will head back down and right around the park...at least we tried..
