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Peru

[Journey across Peru]    [Mountaineering]    [Useful information on mountaineering in Peru]

Peru - monumental landscapes and colourful people
Indigenous woman with alpaca, seen on the streets in Cuzco

  The 'place to be' in Peru are the ancient Inca ruins of Maccu Picchu

An indio playing the pan flute in Sillustani, near the Lake Titicaca   The Uros-people live on self-made reed islands on the Lake Titicaca
Disgusted? Roasted cuys are just one of Peru's many challenging food experiences...   That's what it's like to travel in Peru: Rough unpaved roads and impressive scenery (Volcano El Misti near Arequipa)
El condor pasa - those mighty birds can be spotted in the Colca Canon

  Lama-foetes are sacrificed to mother earth. Seen on the market in Puno


Mountaineering in Cordillera Blanca
Our base camp for climbing Pisco, at 4600m.   Our first climb is Nevado Pisco, 5752m. An easy but strenous climb in impressive ambiente.
Sunrise at Huandoy Sur  

Pisco offers one of the best panoramic views in the Cordillera Blanca. On the left Artesonraju, 6025m.

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Descending from Pisco. It's mainly a snow climb.

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   The Lagune Llanganuco. In the background the mighty Huascaran Norte.
Donkeys carried our heavy backpacks to the base camp. In the background Nev. Chopicalqui.   Climbing Nev. Ishinca, 5500m. 
Willi (on the left), the cook, provided us with the best food in Ishinca valley   On the summit of Nev. Urus, 5400m. F.l.t.r: Adrian, Jacqueline, me. 
We set up a high camp at 5300m in order to climb Tocllaraju.

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   The last and most challenging climb is Nevado Tocllaraju, 6032m. Normal route in from the left.
However, due to bad weather conditions we had to retreat 100m below the summit.   The team in Ishinca base camp: Royer the cook assistant, Jacqueline, Willi the cook, me and Adrian.
 

Some useful information on mountaineering in Peru
When to go:
The best time for mountaineering is from June to August. During our stay in Ishinca-valley in late August, we noticed that the clouds coming from the east were growing from day to day, so better go there a bit earlier.

Suggested mountains:
If you don't have experience in climbing outside the Alps, it's a good idea to not go too hard. We found that Nev. Pisco, 5752m, is a stunning climb with really great views (indeed greater than the views from the mountains in Ishinca valley). The climb is easy, with two short steep snow sections (45°), comparable to easy 4000m peaks in Switzerland. However, it's a long climb in great altitude, so better be well acclimatized.
In Ishinca-valley, the Ishinca-peak is recommended because it's an easy and nice climb. Urus is also easy but has a tiring steep moraine path.
Tocllaraju is a bit harder, but also nice. We didn't get to the top because of the bad weather.
All these mountains tend to be crowded in high season. However, on Uros and Ishinca, we were almost alone because we went in late August.
Here's a list of other mountains which seemed doable for us, but were not climbed by us. Don't expect other people on these mountains:
- The Urus W-peaks are supposed to provide nice rock climbing.
- I was told that Nev. Vallunaraju is easy and interesting.
- The S-ridge of Nev. Churup looked also interesting and rockier than other summits.
- A good add-on to Pisco is Nev. Yanapaccha.

Equipment:
It tends to be colder than in the Alps in summer. We wore Goretex pants and Goretex gloves for wind protection. Due to the snow conditions we didn't use any ice-screws. On Tocllaraju we used ice anchors. It's a good idea to wear a helmet on Tocllaraju.

Base camp:
We had a cook and a kitchen tent in our base camp. This is highly recommended as it gets very cold in the evening and you can't sit outdoors. There's a hut in Ishinca-valley as well as on the Pisco base camp, but it is very expensive (similar to a SAC-hut in the Alps). We had donkeys which wore the heavy bags up to the base camp.

Travel agency:
Don't rely on those guys selling you trips in the streets of Huaraz! We heard some really bad stories about them.
We can highly recommend Andeno Viaggio http://www.huaraz.info/andenoviaggio/ (ask for Vladimir, andenoviaggio@yahoo.es). They are very serious and reliable, and the cook Willi cooks the best food on the mountain, speaks English and plays Swiss card games!

A last important hint: Don't take a local guide in order to climb a hard mountain! The guides know only the most popular and easy summits, and they won't take you on a challenging climb. However, guides are ok on the very easy summits such as Pisco or Ishinca.