Cerro Champaqui
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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.