The Family Conquers Dead Woman's Pass

We got up early this morning, packed up and ate some breakfast, and were hiking by 06:30. This was going to be the most difficult day of the trek in an all out seven hour push to get up and over Dead Woman’s Pass, elevation 13,800 feet. And if you are good at math that means we are climbing up over 4,000 feet on the Stairmaster from hell, and then of course, back down the other side. Before the trek we were told about Coca leaves, and I picked up two packs for a US dollar each. The Inca used these as they are very effective against altitude sickness and help to alleviate pain. You basically suck and/or chew on them a little as you hike, it’s kind of an acquired taste and after a while kind of pleasant. It’s very important to understand that Coca leaves contain small amounts of cocaine, and while commonly accepted in the Andes, it’s not advisable to take any home. We were told that drug dogs will hit on them and that while the amounts are quite small they will still prosecute you with drug trafficking. So I left my remaining stash in Peru.


No cell coverage out here, you need a satellite phone. I’m happy to say that there were not any fires at work and did not receive any calls. I have to give a special "Thanks!" out to my clients for this, you guys are the best!


Early that morning we came to another little town where we found a sign with some language on it and a picture of a bear. Not sure how true this is, but Fredy said the sign said “Please do not feed the people eating bears”.


The porters were close on our tail.


Another farm.


And the trail continues.


One of many little bridges, not original Inca but created by a more modern civilization.


I can’t even begin to capture on film what we saw, nothing will do it justice, and maybe there is a reason for that. While you can read my journal, view my highly compressed and reduced in size pictures, it’s nothing like actually being there, well here for example.


Into the jungle, but no bugs that bite, I think we were too high for them. And I mean in elevation and not from the Coca leaves.






And now the steps started.


And they went up.


Wow. I think I have only experienced this feeling once before, and those of you who fought your way to the Secret Lagoon on Railay Beach, Krabi in Thailand, without injury, know what I am talking about.


At this point the altitude starts to set in and your pace begins to slow, taking ten to twenty steps and then resting to catch your breath so you don’t pass out.




We stopped for a bit to rest before going for the summit.




And finally there it is, Dead Woman’s Pass. It’s called this not because some old woman died up there but because it looks like a dead woman lying down. I’ll show you a picture later the shows this better, but don’t be confused, that nipple thing in the middle is not a nipple, but rather her head on a pillow.


Wow again. View from the top of Dead Woman’s Pass.


Porter marching up the few remaining steps to the top. I was more of the pace of four to eight steps and then rest, four to eight more and rest again.


View looking down the other side.


A few switchbacks to descend the other side.


And down we would go.


This is where we came down, and when I looked back I could not help but think “What if that was covered with snow?”. My brain started to pick out which lines I would ski, but it was late afternoon and we have not had lunch yet so I stopped dreaming and continued down.


We arrived at our second camp site and had a late lunch, then napped, then had dinner, then went to bed. I took a few moments to again look at the sky once it cleared after dark, and was amazed at how many stars there were and how you could so clearly make out the outer arm of the Milky Way. This was amazing to me, you were so much closer to the skies and had no background light drowning out the light of the stars. I thought “There has to be some UFO connection with the Nazca Lines”.


Camp Two.


I slept well that night. Even though we were higher and rumors had it that it would get very cold, it was not bad at all. Which was good as tomorrow was going to be the longest day, clocking in at ten hours of hiking.