Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru

Though only 30 km long, the Cordillera Huayhuash packs in some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on earth. It is one continuous serrated ridge that falls away into fluted snow faces and glaciers. Seven peaks here top 6,000 meters, and another seven are over 5,500 meters. The highest peak, Yerupajá (6,634 meters), is the second-highest peak in Peru and is followed by Siulá Grande (6,356 meters), where Joe Simpson fell into a crevasse and lived to tell the story in Touching the Void.

The Huayhuash is 50 km southeast of the Cordillera Blanca yet utterly different. First, there are no broad, U-shaped valleys in the Huayhuash that lead over high passes to the other side. Instead trekkers must walk around the outer edges or the range, climbing up and over passes between 4,500 and 5,000 meters. To manage these heights, nearly all trekkers use arrieros and burros, which can be contracted easily at the range’s trailheads (a recommended arriero in Chiquián is Natividad Bedón).

The other main difference with the Cordillera Blanca is its remoteness. Even with a rash of new roads, getting into the Huayhuash still takes one or two days. The range has a raw, wilderness feel, especially along its pristine eastern side, where rocky ridges cede to turquoise lakes and wide-open rolling grasslands that drain into the Amazon basin. Condors are seen here frequently, along with a range of migratory birds, and small herds of vicuña live up in the narrow valleys.

Unfortunately, the Huayhuash is changing quickly as new roads approach from all sides. Mitsui Mining and Smelting has converted once-pristine wetlands on the range’s west edge into industrial wastes. Local residents say that a local mine explosion has contaminated their water supply. The Peruvian government declared the range a protected area in 2002, the first step toward making the area a park or national reserve. Villagers are in large part opposed to the area’s new protected status, because they fear they will lose grazing rights on what has always been their communal land. A great new website, www.huayhuash.org, focuses on the responsible use of the Huayhuash area following Leave No Trace principles.

Routes
The time-honored trek in the Cordillera Huayhuash is a 12-day loop around the entire range that begins and ends in the village of Chiquián. This route has become somewhat shorter these days because new roads have been built onwards from Chiquián, which for years was the range’s closest launching point. From Chiquián, combis now travel to Llamac via a new mining road, which shortens the route by a day. This trek continues clockwise around the entire range and crosses eight passes between 4,600 and 5,000 meters before completing the circle at Pacllón, where a new road returns to Chiquián.

Many groups are now entering through Huallanca, a village at 3,400 meters that lies along the dirt road between Huaraz and Huánuco. Huallanca was rarely used as an entry point in the past because it was a long one- or two-day slog to get to the Huayhuash. But combis now travel along a new road that goes as far as the village of Matacancha. Trekkers usually get off beforehand at the tiny village of Ishpac and head over the 4,700-meter Cacanpunta Pass en route to their first campsite at Lago Mitacocha. This trek essentially does half of the full circuit and skirts the range’s eastern side. After a campsite at Lago Carhuacocha, the trail diverges, and trekkers have to decide between a 4,600-meter pass or a pass 200 meters higher with better views of the glaciers. The next camps are at the village of Huayhuash and then on to Laguna Viconga, where hot springs lie a mile to the southwest. The final day is a long walk over rolling hills out to Cajatambo, where a good road leads to Pativilca on the coast.

Because of the new Huallanca access, trekkers can now see a good bit of the Cordillera Huayhuash in five days. But there is a downside. Huallanca, at 3,400 meters, is the same altitude as Cusco and takes some getting used to. Those who come from the coast usually have to spend a day or two in Huaraz before trekking. Another issue is that each day of this five-day route includes a pass over 4,600 meters, which is a feat even for the acclimatized. The full circuit, on the other hand, has three days of acclimatization on rolling hills before hitting this string of knockout passes. Another problem is luggage: Five-day trekkers come in from the Huaraz side of the range and exit at the coast, so they have to carry everything with them. And of course this route misses the mountain views on the west side of the range. Val Pitkethly guides in the Huayhuash each year and has written the Globetrotter guide Trekking and Climbing in the Andes. She highly recommends the full circuit for all the above reasons, but also because “it’s just too beautiful of a place to rush through.”

Getting There
Transportes El Rápido (Mariscal Cáceres and Tarapacá, tel. 043/72-2887) in Huaraz has a bus at 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. to Chiquián ($3, three hours) and at 6 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to Huallanca ($4, four hours), continuing on to La Unión (10 hours). Empresa Andia in the main square of Cajatambo has buses every morning at 6 a.m. to Lima ($8, nine hours).