A walking track called the Apacheta Trail, used by locals, runs across the continental divide 13 kilometers to the west of Mismi, linking the villages of the Colca Canyon to the isolated valleys of the altiplano used by alpaca herders and their families, and to the mining town of Caylloma, 60 km distant (which can be accessed by a road from another direction).
"A gold figurine was discovered in a pirqa (Quechua for "wall", here a burial pit) on the summit by a South African father and son who were working in the Colca Canyon in the early 1970s.
McIntyre writes, "Despite support by a helicopter and a monstrous six-wheel truck carrying five tons of equipment, Jean-Michel and his puffing lowlanders barely made it to the top.
"[1] In 1985 a five-man team from the Los Angeles Adventurers Club, led by the late Emil Barajak, erected a heavy iron cross at the source.
In the same year, a 9-member international team organized by South African Dr. Francois J. Odendaal climbed out of the Colca valley and hiked up the Apacheta Trail with grandiose and expensive plans to run the Amazon by raft and kayak all the way to the sea.
Kane documents in his book that he hiked for an hour to the top of a mountain, off the Apacheta Trail, and "touched the source" (a frozen river of water).