My plan was to go to Mountain Bike holidays to Peru in early 2022. Two weeks of epic riding in Andes around the glaciers of Salkantay and Ausangate or visiting UNESCO World Heritage site called Machu Picchu.
Since Peru is on the other side of the planet for me, I flew to Lima first to adjust myself for the time shift, get used for the culture a bit and then reaching the holiday base in Cusco. Cusco’s elevation is 3400m, we should stay for few days to acclimatize and ride some local trails first. My friend who lives in Lima barely visits Cusco, she immediately feels an altitude jump, being sick all the time.
On the way to Cusco, book the seat on the left. Glaciers are greeting you, I got lucky with the warm snow colors of the sunset. I have already seen myself doing hike&bike around, I humbly said, “Hello Beauty, I will be there soon. “
After the landing, guys waited me at the airport, they could be recognized from miles away, wearing MTB caps and clothes and totally chilled. My bike bag was loaded to the trunk, and we were heading to the hotel. Reggae songs were supporting the initial conversations, and the plan suddenly changed.
“Cusco is going to be closed for next few days starting from early tomorrow. There is a regional strike, all city exits are going to be closed and we would be totally stuck. There will be no options to leave the city and no one knows for how long. The only option is to leave the city now. When ? Now ! Go to assembly your bike, guys will help you and we are leaving”.
Six MTB bikes on the roof, fully loaded van with luggage, MTB crew and new friends heading to Ausangate Glacier. Yeah ! We arrived to the last local house towards Ausangante at midnight. Going quickly to sleep as we are starting around 8 or 9 tomorrow morning. So better get ready and have good sleep.
Two Alpaca blankets, one sleeping bag and some merino layers did not warm me up much. Just wanted to hold it till the morning, but when nature calls, you need to go. Clear sky, millions of stars, white Ausangate shining your way and freezing ground temperatures. Not kidding, it was 4500m of elevation.
The route goes through the pass in 5000m, then down to the Pacchanta village in 4300m. The end station is the hot springs, get some beers and next day back. I felt I was quite well prepared. I did many mountain passes in Europe and ski-touring above 2000 meters. I was able to hold my tempo heartbeat for longer time, I felt strong …
Felt strong up to 4800 meters I think. Got super tired after. Been bit dizzy, but that went away for the exchange of super tiredness. I was very slow, did not even have enough energy to lean towards the running water and drink it through the filter. We were on top of the pass, Ausangate glacier in front of us. I was sitting on the ground, breathing heavily, trying to soak some energy from the spectacular glacier.
I knew that the route goes down from this point, but what about next day when returning back? Next day was even worse. I did not sleep much, had a medium headache, could not eat much for breakfast. After first few meters on mountain bike, I was done, squeezed like a lemon, could not pedal any longer. My heartbeat went totally up, could not breath and get enough air, every simple energetic movement costs a longer recovery time of standing and breathing heavily. I was still able to push bike besides me, with pauses, and taking more photos, but only hike to the pass and then bit of downhill back to the local house.
I liked that experience in the end, but would it not be better to be well prepared for such altitudes ?
