We spent 12 days hiking in the Cordillera Huayhuash, including two rest days when we went on side trips. The first 9 days of our circuit around the Cordillera Huayhuash was incredibly spectacular. I thought the Huayhuash circuit was certainly more scenic than the Torres del Paine circuit in Patagonia, and the weather was a lot better too.

Day 1 - Llamac (3300 m) → Laguna Jahuacocha (4070 m) crossing Macrash Punta (4272 m). We left Huaraz at 4 am and got to Llamac around 9 am. After having breakfast and loading up the mules, we left Llamac at 1030 am. Crossing the Macrash Punta gave the first spectacular view of the Huayhuash mountains. We spent an hour having lunch and then headed down to our first camp at Jahuacocha, arriving around 4 pm. Jahuacocha has really nice views but it is also heavily impacted by humans. There were half buried toilet holes all over the place and it was also crowded with 4 or 5 other groups. We were planning on spending our last night in the Huayhuash there but we changed our plans to avoid spending another night at Jahuacocha.

Day 2 - Laguna Jahuacocha (4070 m) → Rondoy (4050 m) crossing Sambuya Punta (4750 m) and Rondoy Punta (4735 m). We crossed two high passes in succession on the second day and were treated with more spectacular views of the Huayhuash range. Renting a horse turned out to be a good idea on the trip because there was invariably someone feeling poor every day. Zac figured out that we weren't big fans of camping in crowded campsites and suggested a small change to the standard Huayhuash circuit itinerary by camping at Rondoy instead of Matacancha or Quartelhuain. To make up the time the next day, we would cross Paria Punta instead of the standard Cacanan Punta.