Near the summit, there is a grotto formed by several house-sized boulders leaning together. It takes a bit of hands-and-knees crawling to traverse the grotto, and you are then left in a gap among the summit boulders. The scramble to the summit itself involves a couple of third-class moves, mantling up on a 20 sloping slab of granite with several hundred feet of air under its downhill edge and then scrambling up to the perch carved out of the summit boulder itself. It is a comfortable seat, probably carved by the Incas so a lookout could stand there and survey the whole of Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail leading down from the Sun Gate in the saddle a couple of miles north of Machu Picchu.

I ran into three other intrepid souls, variously from Britain, Singapore and Germany, at the summit, so we shared photo duties (and a hand to the least-accomplished of the three, who was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of sliding off the slick stones). The weather then closed in for a while, totally obscuring Machu Picchu, so we headed back down.

Shortly after leaving the summit, you run into the only other third-class move of the climb. A large boulder bisects the trail, and passing it requires hanging onto the shoulder-height edge of the boulder and swinging a leg around the corner to the continuation of the trail, with your nether parts briefly hung out in space. Not the spot to let go, but merely a sporty spot to overcome.

The trail then meanders around the far side of Huayna Picchu until you reach this Inca storehouse. The view down into the Urubamba valley is outstanding.

Just below the storehouse is the toughest pitch of the whole trail. As evident from the two people climbing up from below in the photo to the left, it is steep, with six-inch-wide steps having eight to ten inch vertical spacing. There is no handrail on this pitch and I was happy to have my hiking staff along. Descending the steps required side-stepping because they were simply too narrow to walk straight down, especially still wet from the occasional mists.

The steps then widen out a bit and the rest of the trail becomes easier, but still exposed to one side. The United Nations flair to the eclectic mix of climbers was further enhanced as I met a young man from Kenya on his way back down from the summit.

The Kenyan outpaced me on the way back to the knife-edge ridge. The cloud-forest nature of the area was emphasized by this moss-laden tree and the lupines which grow at this altitude. Interestingly, the Incas took advantage of the different microclimates at varying altitudes and with different solar exposure. At the level of the Urubamba river, below, it is quite tropical, making cultivation of bananas possible. From there upwards, the crops were matched to the changing conditions, with corn, then squash and finally potatoes grown on the terraces at different levels.

Once again back safely to the trailhead. I had started at 7:10 and reached the summit of Huayna Picchu at 8:05, so just under an hour on the way up. We had waited a while on the summit for the weather to clear, but it wasn't promising. I returned to the trailhead about 9:45 after several photo-op stops and conversations with other folks just setting out for the summit. One of the resident lawn mowers greeted me upon my return, posing nicely for a photo after her(?) morning dust bath.

With a handful of third-class moves to punctuate an otherwise first and second class route, Huayna Picchu was an enjoyable first climb of the year. If you have the opportunity to visit Machu Picchu, try to arrange an itinerary that, like ours, includes an overnight stay at Aguas Calientes. The opportunity to see the ruins early in the morning before the hordes of tourists invade is worth the early wakeup call. Plus, the second day affords the opportunity to see the site from the top of Huayna Picchu. Happy climbing!!