Strong winds hammered us as we switch-backed up the last few hundred feet of the trail where we were suddenly face-to-face with massive glaciers on the Salkantay Pass. Gaining 2,500 feet of altitude, we had hiked most of the morning up through the lush Rio Blanco Valley in the Vilcabamba Range with the glacial peak in the distance and we were finally going to conquer the 15,200 ft. pass! Surrounded by apachetas, stone cairns placed as a blessing on mountain passes, we gave way as a caravan of horses appeared from the other side and it began to snow. The Salkantay Lodge-to-Lodge trek begins west of Cusco in the Vilcabamba Range and takes you on a week long trek through nine different bio-zones in 40 miles of hiking. Directly north of Salkantay Mountain lies Machu Picchu, which is at the end of a ridge that extends down from this mountain.

LAURA HARE Salkantay Lodge-to-Lodge Trek to Machu Picchu