Cordillera Blanca

Dec 31, 2013 New Years Eve  Huaraz, Peru  160km.

 Cordillera Blanca is Spanish for white range.  The Cordillera Blanca consists of 33 peaks over 5,500 meters (18,040 ft).  There are many snow covered peaks even though these mountains are considered tropical.

The day started like any other, we packed up with the intentions of meeting Dave Ranson for New years http://prairestopenguins.com ) but ended up high in the mountains..

On the way out of town we met a huge group of riders from Columbia.  Before we knew it there were tons of pedestrians, police officers.  Then even a guy from the town filming us.

We randomly picked a road on the GPS that headed off into the mountains.  Snow in the distance.

We wound our way on gravel roads (thats a stretch, cow paths?), through tiny villages and beautiful valleys. Eventually we reached a large gate.  We convinced the watcher to let us through even though we didn't have the proper paper work.

We climbed higher and higher.

and higher... We took the airbox covers off our bikes.  They ran much better.  Just not enough air for the engines otherwise.

 

Finally reaching this mining camp on the side of Mount Palcaraju?.  We drove the bikes to 4872 meters (just below 16,000 ft) and then proceeded to hike to the snow at well over 5,000 meters (16,500 ft).

At over 16,000ft the air is thin and we were both feeling quite lightheaded.

Mountain climbing in motorcycle gear!

On the way down.

Rain/hail coming!

Taking shelter from the rain and hail.

On the way out we were running away from bone shaking thunder and a crazy hail/rainstorm coming rapidly behind us. Kyle stopped for a Peruvian man that was waving him down and was begging for a ride as he knew as well he did not want to be caught in this storm. Trevor had him hop on and took off again just flying. Kyle picked up the next guy and we drove like mad barely making it to this little shelter where we hid for about 30-45 minutes as the storm came and started to subside.

We are very pleased with how the bikes performed.  Crazy altitude riding extremely rough "roads" fully loaded and with a passenger.  Tough suspension! 

We we so tired when we arrived back in Huaraz, we slept for a couple hours.  We woke up in time to celebrate the new year.  Not that we had a choice....  It sounded like we woke up in a war zone.  Everybody was launching their own fireworks from the roofs of their houses.  It was MADNESS.  A couple times we we sent ducking for cover on the roof of our hostel.  This went on for at least an half an hour. The whole city smelt of gunpower.  They know how to put on a show!

Burning of the manikins. 

Happy New Year Everybody!