Climbing Gear Theft in the Cordillera Blanca?

Hello, 

I have a climbing trip planned to summit Alpamayo here in the end of June-early July. My team was planning on bringing all our own food (instead of hire a cook) due to dietary restrictions, finicky stomachs, and other reasons. 

I chatted with a guide yesterday, and he mentioned that it's common for climbers who don't hire cooks to have their gear stolen in response to not giving them business. Is there truth to this? I would rather not put my team at risk, so I am weighing my options. Any experience would be super helpful. 

Thank you!

I never heard (and read from expeditions by climbers eg. the *Pou brothers to the Huaraz area) this BS story before lol. Probably scare tactics to force foreign climbers to give business to tte locals. Just ignore it and carry on. Have fun and safe climbing! ;)

*https://explorersweb.com/the-pou-brothers-free-climb-aupa-gasteiz-in-the-peruvian-andes/

It was more than 20 years ago, but we came down off of Huascaran to find all our base camp gone. There was a local military rescue group up there that took it for “safekeeping “. Luckily we had enough with us to get back down ok. We had been paying a base camp host for other peaks, but there was not one there when we arrived and we never saw one . A couple days later, a long drive to another town, and after payment of a “fee” to hold our gear, we got it all back.

Thanks!

So much for the poor mans Himalaya. Never heard of this happening before. Hiring a cook? Really?
Admittedly its been a few years since being down there, but this is a 1st to hear anything of the like for me.
I agree, the 'guide' is feeding you a load of bs.

jcs

 

The scamming of tourists was pretty intense in some areas, especially at airports and bus stations, when I was there 10 years ago.  I would not be surprised if your gear got stolen if you left it unattended at base camp.  I am also sure any camp cook you hire would be willing to use the food you bring along.  Our camp cook was very helpful and it was very nice to have plenty of hot water and food available upon entering camp.  Our cook had also climbed all the peaks we were climbing as was good source of information about climbing and culture.  

On the other side of the coin there were some pretty awesomely good prices for food and other items at restaurants, bakeries and other vendors.  Overall my visit was very inexpensive.  

climber patwrote:

The scamming of tourists was pretty intense in some areas, especially at airports and bus stations, when I was there 10 years ago.  I would not be surprised if your gear got stolen if you left it unattended at base camp.  I am also sure any camp cook you hire would be willing to use the food you bring along.  Our camp cook was very helpful and it was very nice to have plenty of hot water and food available upon entering camp.  Our cook had also climbed all the peaks we were climbing as was good source of information about climbing and culture.  

On the other side of the coin there were some pretty awesomely good prices for food and other items at restaurants, bakeries and other vendors.  Overall my visit was very inexpensive.  

Great advice, thank you so much!