Vicuna + Guanaco

Fitting that old travelling buddies would reconvene to hike a couple peaks named after wild South American camelids. As a second trip to the Coquihalla Summits, we went a bit deeper to attempt Vicuña and Guanaco.

With a bit of foresight we would have brought our bicycles as the approach involves walking on a 6km flat trail. Doing that twice in a day wasted a lot of time. On the way in though we did see a bear ahead on the trail. From a distance it looked like it was rearing up to charge but then it took off in a different direction. Lets just say we started making a lot of noise after that.

After the long walk in, it is almost a relief to begin gaining elevation. It doesn’t let up either until a saddle between the two peaks. From there we had to choose where to go first. Vicuña is definitely the most technical so we saved that for last. Guanaco ends up not being noteworthy at all because Vicuña is such an amazing looking peak.

During the approach to Vicuña it almost seems like it won’t be possible to climb – at least not without mountaineering equipment. We kept wondering if the trail would wrap around the back or something but no, it just goes straight up the steep peak. For the most part it isn’t too bad but there is one section where someone has left a rope. It would be pretty sketchy without that.

We didn’t get our blue-bird sky day but did end up getting a few clear views so we were satisfied.