Tour overview

The Huayhuash range is 30km long and has Himalayan features and its peaks are morphologically speaking, much more hilly and have more difficult access than those form the Cordillera Blanca, aligned north to south, the main range of some twenty peaks stretches for approximately 15km. with a subsidiary range of smaller peaks stretching out to the west for approximately 15km. six of the peaks exceed 6000m. Included among them are Yerupaja 6617m, the second highest mountain in Peru behind Huascaran at 6768m, and Siula 6344m. made famous by the film Touching the Void

The area is barely populated at all, with what hamlets there are being very small and generally only found below 4000m. the snowline is found at approximately 4,800m. the nearest villages are Chiquian 3400m and Cajatambo 3375m, some mining takes place in the area, so the north of the mountains there is an unsurfaced road leading up to as high as 4750m. in 2002 the Peruvian Ministery of Agriculture declared the Huayhuash mountain range a “reserved zone” and prohibited certain economic activities, including any future mining.

Itinerary

Routes