Huascarán National Park — national park
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Huascarán National Park

Parque nacional Huascarán

  • 2 min read
  • 9.400° S 77.400° W
  • UNESCO World Heritage
  • UNESCO natural beauty

Interesting facts

  • In 1970 an earthquake broke away part of Huascarán's north face, sending some 80 million cubic metres of ice and rock down onto the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca.
  • That 1970 avalanche raced about 18 km down the valley at an average speed of roughly 280 to 335 km/h.
  • Huascarán is the highest point in all of Earth's tropics and the fourth-highest mountain in South America.
  • Huascarán Sur was first climbed on 20 July 1932 by a German-Austrian expedition; the lower north summit had been reached in 1908 by a party including Annie Smith Peck.
  • The name probably comes from the Quechua waska, 'rope', a nod to the mountain's two linked summits; an early map by Antonio Raimondi labels it 'Huascan'.
  • Guitarrero Cave in the region holds traces of people from around 12,500 BC, making it one of the oldest known human settlements in Peru.
  • The continental divide runs down the middle of the park, splitting it into two nearly equal halves that drain to the Pacific and to the Atlantic.
  • In 2013 about 83,000 people lived within the park's boundaries, spread across more than fifty villages and hamlets.
  • Studies show the glaciated area of the Cordillera Blanca shrank by about a quarter over three decades.
  • One of the first boundary proposals for the park was drawn up in 1967 by two US Peace Corps volunteers, Curry Slaymaker and Joel Albrecht.

Why it is worth it

Huascarán National Park protects almost the whole of the Cordillera Blanca, the highest tropical mountain range on Earth, a wall of ice-capped peaks running some 150 km along the central Andes of Peru. Its highest summit, Huascarán, reaches 6,768 metres, the top of Peru, and around it rise Huandoy, Copa, Huantsán and dozens of other peaks above 6,000 metres. The park covers 340,000 hectares, and within that space lie around 660 tropical glaciers, the largest glaciated area in the tropics, and some 300 glacial lakes of startling turquoise, set in U-shaped valleys carved by ice. It was created in 1975, declared a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1977 and a World Heritage Site in 1985.

The range is a watershed between two oceans. Its western slopes drain to the Santa River and the Pacific; its eastern side feeds the Marañón and ultimately the Amazon. Between the valley floors at around 2,500 metres and the snow lines, the park climbs through patches of high Andean forest of Polylepis, puna grassland and alpine tundra. Its most famous plant is the Queen of the Andes, Puya raimondii, a giant bromeliad and a special object of protection; animals include the spectacled bear, the Andean condor, vicuña and the taruca deer, together with more than 120 bird species, from torrent ducks to giant hummingbirds.

For walkers and climbers the park is one of the great mountain destinations of South America, with some 25 trekking routes and more than a hundred climbing objectives. The Llanganuco lakes are among its best-known sights. People have lived and travelled here for millennia, and the park also holds 33 archaeological sites, from rock paintings and old terraces to tombs, fortresses and irrigation works, as well as a pre-Columbian road linking Olleros with Chavín. The dry season from April to November brings clear days and cold nights; the wet months turn the valleys green.

Getting there

The usual base for the park is Huaraz, capital of the Áncash region, in the Santa valley along the western foot of the range; the nearest settlement to the park's central point is Centenario, about 19 km away. Comandante FAP Germán Arias Graziani Airport (ATA) at Anta, about 20 km northwest of Huaraz and some 40 minutes by road, is the regional airport; FAP Lieutenant Jaime Andres de Montreuil Morales Airport at Chimbote (CHM) on the coast is about 127 km away.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Peru 28The Most Beautiful UNESCO-Listed National Parks 27The Most Beautiful National Parks 61The Most Beautiful UNESCO-Listed Gardens, Parks and Forests 61The UNESCO Sites of Exceptional Natural Beauty 77The Most Beautiful Gardens, Parks and Forests 232The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites 557

From the encyclopaedia

Huascarán National Park is a Peruvian national park that protects most of the mountain range known as Cordillera Blanca which is part of the central Andes, in the region of Ancash. The park covers an area of 340,000 hectares and is managed by the Peruvian Network of Protected Natural Areas, or SERNANP. Designated as a World Heritage Site in 1985 by UNESCO, Huascaráan is also a well-known mountaineering spot, and harbors a unique biodiversity with plant species such as the Queen of the Andes, trees of the genera Polylepis and Buddleja, and animals such as spectacled bears, condors, vicunas, and tarucas.

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