Huayhuash Curcuit Overview

27 September to 6 October 2024

Matacancha to Matacancha - 62 miles (100 km) - 10 days (9 hiking)

The Cordillera Huayhuash massive is a mere 30km long, but it is packed with stunning lakes, cascading glaciers and towering, fluted peaks over 6000 meters. These include Yerupaja (6634 m), the world’s second highest tropical mountain, and Siula Grande (6356 m), made famous by Joe Simpson and Simon Yates in the award winning book and film ‘Touching the Void’.

Situated to the south of the Cordillera Blanca, this small and compact mountain range features a dense collection of unspoiled, trout-stocked lakes in shades of azure, emerald and turquoise; glacier-clad peaks that rival any in the Himalayas; and idyllic alpine meadows perfect for camping.

The full circuit trek through this remote and pristine range is considered by many as one of the most spectacular in the world.

This hike was probably the highlight of our two months in Peru. Considering we did the Inka Trail, that says a lot. The mountains are just so impressive and the lakes are all that glacial blue. It is mostly completely remote, so there is nothing man-made in any view.

Preparation

It isn’t very technical and the distances are not long; however, it is at pretty high altitudes. Mostly higher than all of Europe. So you need to acclimatise before you go. Serveral days in Cusco or Trujillo at least, even better if you do a few day hikes at higher altitude as well. We did the Ausangate Siete Lagos and Laguna 69 both over 15,000 feet (4572 meters).

Supported or unsupported

I think you could do this trek without support assuming the weather was fine and you had no issues with altitude. However, you just never know about either in these locations and you are pretty far from roads and people. In fact, at one camp we had another couple turn up after it started raining, in the beginning stages of hypothermia and we gave them hot water and food. That said, for most of the year, I think it would be fine to do on your own.

We also choose supported because we didn’t want to have to organise all the travel and food in Peru, not to mention having to take all our camping equipment for ten days of the nearly three months we were away. And we really liked our group. Everyone was super nice, open, supportive, and great to be around.

What to bring

We went at the end of the Peruvian spring, in September and October. It was the start of the rainy season and it did rain nearly every afternoon and some evenings. It also snowed several times, just not when we were hiking. The temperature ranges were pretty extreme, from -5 to 15 C (23 to 59 F).

So we brought a lot of layers including: rain top and bottom, light fleece, down jacket, wool hat, hiking sun gloves, wool gloves, merino base layer for sleeping. You can look at my lighterpack for all the details. We both wore trail runners, we didn’t think boots were required. Additionally, we borrowed someones nalgen bottle at night, filled with hot water, it was an excellent hot water bottle.

Read our day by day notes from our Huayhuash Circuit hike >