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This long Trek to Ausangate (6384m), offers glimpses of high altitude wildlife and local residents. It is a perfect place to escape from the bustle of the modern world. Ausangate Snow Mountain Trek offers walls of ice, glaciers, waterfalls frozen rivers and numerous hot springs and medicinal underground water.
The traveler will also find beautiful views of the surrounding area, looking down into fertile valleys and mountains of the Vilcanota. These are capped to the southeast to protect the valley Canchis.
Day 1: Cusco - Tinki
We go to by bus for 100 km to the southeast from Cusco in the morning. The road passes north of Ausangate, and we leave the road a bit west of the mountain. We camp in Tinki at 3,800. As we fall asleep the setting sun lights up the glacier on the nort west face of Ausangate.
Day 2: Tinqui - Upis
Hike up to the Ausangate glacier. We set up camp alongside the Upis thermal springs, about 4 kilometers higher. We bathe in the hot springs and the cold Upismayo River, which runs beside our camp.
Day 3: Upis - Pucacocha
Hike up to a pass at 4,500, which separates Ausangate proper to the east from a spur named Quellacocha to the west. In the afternoon we pass Lake Pucacocha, WSW of the summit and nestled among various minor peaks. The setting sun plays in cascades of colored ice where we finally make camp.
Day 4: Pucacocha - Chilcapinaya
We continue walking among high-altitude lakes in the valley immediately south of Ausangate, which are unnaturally blue-green. We rise to cross the Palomani pass at 4,800 masl. This is the highest point on the journey. We don't pass between the massif and the spur, but rather rise to take advantage of a gentler slope high on the mountain’s side. Here we can see east over the large hand-shaped Lake Sivinacocha to the jagged, snowcapped Vilcanota Mountains, which cradle this valley. We descend from the cold to camp at Chilcapinaya.
Day 5: Chilcapinaya - Pachaspata
We descend into the sunny Jampa valley, which is inhabited by shepherds and their flocks of alpaca and sheep. We lunch in the valley bottom, pass Lake Ticllacocha, and then climb over a pass at 4,650 masl. Camp is at the small Lake Q´omercocha if we make it or at Pachaspata if dusk catches us there.
Day 6: Pachaspata - Pacchanta
We drop into the valley and village of Pacchanta and bathe in their hot springs all afternoon.
Day 7: Pacchanta - Tinki - Cusco
We pass through increasingly inhabited valleys among the headwaters of the Paucartambo River on the north side of the mountain until the sun sets. We return to the road and our bus. We get back to Cusco for happy hour and a night at the discos, or a long rest, whichever you fancy.
