Cerro Champaqui
  • Cerro Champaqui
  • 2770 m.
  • Prominence: 2208 m
  • Argentina
  • Location: South 26.06468, West 064.89291 (GPS)
  • Difficulty: (YDS) class 2+
  • Climbed January 29, 2023.

Information:

How to get there:

There are many trailheads. If you want a short hike, the nearest bigger village is Santa Rosa de Calamuchita. From here, continue to the smaller village named Villa Yacanto. A long dirt road starts at the east side of this village. The name is Camino al Cerro los Linderos. This road gets rougher higher up and a high clearance vehicle is recommended. The road ends less than one kilometer south of the summit at location S31.99388, W064.93891, elevation close to 2750 meter. The trailhead, however, starts slightly lower at a (right) turnout near location S31.99439, W064.93875, elevation slightly below 2740 meter.
Route description:
Follow a well marked (cairns and paint and signs) trail to the summit. The final stretch crosses smooth rock that may be more tricky if wet. This section involves easy scrambling, (YDS) class 2+. There are 3 summit points, the first (S31.98788, W064.93685) has a cairn with a small statue, the second (somewhat right) is clearly lower, while the third (S31.98753, W064.93622) is very close to the first in elevation.
Comments / Trip report:
We arrived late n Santa Rosa de Calamuchita. It was Saturday night and all hotels seemed fully booked. We were close to giving up and continue driving to Villa Yacanto, when a guy at the local gas station gave us an address where we could rent a section of the house.
The next morning, we drove to Villa Yacanto, then onwards (the dirt road took almost 2 hours) to the trailhead. The weather was calm, but with low visibility due to fog. We started out around 1050 and reached the summit in about 15 minutes. A group of Argentine hikers were ahead, we talked to them and help taking a group picture at the summit. Leaving after another 15 minutes, we were back at the car having spent about 45 minutes altogether.
This concluded our trip. What remained was just driving to Cordoba. We found a nice hotel and went out for dinner later in the evening. The next morning, Franco drove me to the airport, while Adam would spend a second night before his flight back to the US. No issues with the flights, I arrived back home in Bergen, early evening on January 31st.
Thanks to Adam for good company on a trip that certainly deviated quite a lot from both plans and expectations. Also, thanks to Franco for expert driving and support for almost a full month.

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