After two rainy days having a hard time to keep the moral and motivation up, I put all my hopes in the one potential window of a decent weather!
Upis is a very basic and cold place with no facilities - I was truly happy I brought my big down jacket, even if it meant carrying the 600gr all around the circuit!
The morning of 11th I woke up to wonderful clear skies for the first time in a week! Energized by the sunrise I set off at the Trail sign in Upis and off I was. It was absolutely stunning, especially the climb up to Col Arapa!
There was a lot of mud on the trails, so the runnable sections were quite slow. Got lost on animal trails a few times and also slid on my ass another hand full of times.
Got caught in a hail storm on Abra Palomani and then the descent from it. Still had a lot of fun running downhill!
The up to Qampa Pass was horrendous: looong and the altitude got the best of me. I (almost) cried twice and never thought I will make it under the 10hrs I had set for myself.
However, once I hit the top of it I run down full gas, trying to make up for the super slow slog up. I felt I was flying those last 10km down, with increasingly more oxygen and the perspective of hot springs and seeing my friends in Pacchanta.
Totally worth doing this tour. Goes a lot faster if there is no mud, you are better acclimated than me (I was only 1 week in Peru) and you are not carrying a lot of things (I spent 2 days in Upis - so I had a rather heavy pack). The views are out of this world! There is water everywhere. However, no way to get food or anything else on the way.