Read about my Huaraz hikes in Wander With Wonder!

Check out my 2023 update to Horizon Guides’ Peru Trekking Guide!

My two weeks in Huaraz were beautiful and exciting. It was a lot of time at altitude, so I was thankful that I live in Cusco, at 11,000ft (3500m). That alone saved me a lot of headaches. Huaraz is a bit lower than Cusco, at 10,000 ft (3,050m) but the hikes I did were all much higher. The lowest was Wilkacocha (3575m/11,729ft) and the highest were Pastoruri and Mateo, which are both around 5200m/17,000ft).

I did the hikes in the order they’re shown below, to be cautious with the altitude - regardless of how acclimatized I though I was already. I started with Laguna 69 to test my acclimatization. I followed with Wilcacocha because it’s an easier hike at roughly the same altitude as Cusco. I booked tours of Lake Parón and the Pastoruri Glacier after Wilcacocha as two places I could spend time at high altitude without much physical effort. My next hike was Churup because it’s a tough hike but not as high of altitude as Pastoruri. After that I took a rest day and ate a lot before I climbed the Mateo Glacier.

I ended my trip to Huaraz at the Chancos hot springs, where I rented my own private cave that’s a natural sauna. It was as fabulous as it sounds!

All of the hikes, except for Wilcacocha, were in Huascarán National Park. The daily park fee is s/30 for foreigners or s/12 for Peruvians (or foreigners with a resident card, like me). All three tours I did cost s/60 for the transportation and a guide. You have to bring your own food for Laguna 69 but the tour stops at restaurants for both Parón and Pastoruri.

The best place to get information about the park, the hikes and everything mountaineering is the Casa de Guías, which is on Parque Ginebra in Huaraz. It’s only a block from the main plaza and I highly recommend planning a stop there your first day in town.

Along the way, I ate a lot of great food, scoped out the best spots in town to get photos of the mountains and met a lot of really cool people. I actually loved Huaraz so much that I’m hoping to spend all July there next year! Read on for the highlights of two epic weeks!

Read my article about the all-female climbing group Chicas de Alturas on Flashpack SOLO!