Huascarán Climbing

The twin snowy peaks of Huascarán dominate the Cordillera Blanca skyline from the towns of Yungay, Mancos and Musho.

The tallest summit of Huascarán, Huascarán Sur, ranks as the tallest peak in Peru and 4th tallest peak outside of Asia. After Aconcagua, Huascarán sees more climber traffic than any other of the top ten tallest peaks in South America. This is mostly due to the reasonable approach to the base and the popular normal route being relatively straight forward. For the acclimated climber, the peak can be ascended in a relatively shorter trip of 4 days or so.

Huascarán Sur, 6768m (22,205 feet) was first ascended on 20 July 1932 by a German/Austrian team. Dr. Philipp Borchers assembled a team of science-minded climbers to map and climb their way through the Cordillera Blanca. He and Wilhelm Bernard, Erwin Hein, Hermann Hörlin and Erwin Schneider climbed the tallest summit but also significantly, along with Hans Kinzl, produced an accurate and coveted map of the area.

Huascarán Norte, while not near the popular venue as its taller neighbor across the la Garganta, saw a significant early first ascent by American suffragette and alpinist Annie S. Peck, Rudolf Taugwalder and Gabriel Zum Taugwald on 2 September 1908. At 6,654m (21,831 feet), the north peak of Huascarán would still rank amongst the top dozen tallest peaks in South America.

Both the main summit and the north summit of Huascarán are climbed from the Normal Route which gains the La Garganta area. Route difficulty for the Normal Route is PD+/AD-.

Some additional routes, all much more difficult, are:

Huascarán Sur

West Face/Ridge aka “The Sheld” rated D+. This route and its variations have to be the second most popular route up the southern summit.
Northeast Ridge aka the Spanish Route rated ED+.

Huascarán Norte

North face aka the Paragot route rated ED1.
Northwest ridge aka the Italian rated ED1/ED2.
Northwest face aka the Polish-Czech rated ED1/ED2.
North face aka the Swiss route rated ED2.