It was raining in the early morning on Day 2 and luckily it stopped by the time we were ready to hike at 8 am (this would be our de facto start time every day). We saw a lot of birds as we walked along the lake and made the short detour up the moraine to get a good look at the beautiful turquoise lake Solteracocha. Then we began our climb for the day; 700 m/2300 ft to Punta Rondoy. The mountains were in and out of the clouds as we started our climb and we were happy that while it was overcast and gray, the rain was holding off. It was chilly and cloudy when we reached the pass, but that did not deter us from taking a break to eat lunch and enjoy what scenery we could see. Although it really feels like one pass and is referred to as Punta Rondoy, there are technically two passes: Sambuya Punta (4750 m/15,600 feet) and Punta Rondoy (4735 m/15500 ft). Book time is listed as two to three hours to the pass from Jahuacocha.

We had a gradual descent from the pass to Quebrada Rondoy and could see our tents in the distance. Our crew was speedy - they would be there for hours before we would arrive. We had a nice walk through the valley down to the river and eventually met up with a dirt road. The road was built in 1994 for the Mitsui mine and is sometimes used by trekkers to access the circuit (usually camping at Matacancha). Book time from Jahuacocha to Matacancha is 4.5 - 7 hours and our campsite at Cuartelwain was maybe 30-45 minutes beyond that. It was nice to arrive much earlier in camp than the day before and we had downtime before dinner. We had our hot drinks and snacks then rested in the tent for a bit. We could hear sleet on the tent and when we emerged for dinner it was sleeting/snowing enough to accumulate and it was very windy too. So much for the dry season! It felt like a blizzard while we had dinner (soup, chicken, rice and vegetables) and we sat there feverishly hoping the storm would not hinder our hiking the next day. The bright spot of dinner was an adorable little dog we could see peeking into our tent whenever the wind would blow open the door flaps. After a few times spotting him we looked over and saw him sitting quietly in the tent eyeing our chicken bones. We fed him some scraps and after Norah expressing her worries that the little guy would be cold during the night, I was certain we were going to end up with a dog in our tent. But he scampered off and we saw him next morning when we passed by the hut he lived in with a farmer. With the sleet, snow, and wind, it was an early night for us in the tent (with our fingers crossed for improved weather on Day 3!).

Day 2:
700 m/2300 ft ascent
580 m/1900 ft descent
Book time: 4.5 - 7 hours (plus extra ~ 45 minutes to Cuartelwain)
High point: Punta Rondoy 4750 m/15600 ft
Camp at Quartelhuain 4170 m/13700 ft