Laguna 69
Interesting facts
- The waterfall that feeds the lake drops from Chacraraju, widely regarded as the steepest and most difficult six-thousand-metre peak to climb in the Andes.
- Chacraraju's 6,108-metre west summit was first reached only on 31 July 1956, by a French expedition led by the mountaineer Lionel Terray.
- Despite its modest surface, the lake holds roughly 2.8 million cubic metres of water in its deep basin.
- Laguna 69 sits in the upper reaches of the Demanda ravine, one of more than 400 lakes counted inside Huascarán National Park.
- The Cebolla Pampa campsite where the walk starts also serves as base camp for climbers heading to Nevado Pisco.
- Besides condors and vicuñas, pumas, taruca deer and Andean foxes have been recorded along the route, together with queñual (Polylepis) woodland.
- The surrounding park shelters about 660 tropical glaciers, the largest glaciated area anywhere in the tropics.
- The first boundary proposal for the park was drawn up in 1967 by two Peace Corps volunteers, Curry Slaymaker and Joel Albrecht.
Why it is worth it
High in Peru's Cordillera Blanca, at roughly 4,600 metres, Laguna 69 fills a rocky cirque beneath the ice-hung walls of Chacraraju. Its water is a vivid turquoise, a colour owed to minerals carried down in glacial meltwater, and in the thaw season a waterfall pours from the mountain straight into the lake. It is a small basin but a deep one: surveys give a maximum depth of a little over 58 metres, set against some of the steepest rock and ice in the Andes.
The name is an accident of bureaucracy. When Huascarán National Park was created in 1975, every lake inside its boundaries had to be entered on a list, and those without a traditional Quechua name, unlike neighbours such as Palcacocha or Auquiscocha, were simply given numbers. Number 69 stuck, and the lake has become one of the best-known walking destinations in the range. The path begins at the Cebolla Pampa campsite and climbs beside the stream that drains the lake, past a chain of cascades, through high grassland of ichu and the towering flower spikes of Puya raimondii. Andean condors and vicuñas are among the animals recorded along the way.
The park around it protects most of the Cordillera Blanca, the highest tropical mountain range on Earth, including Huascarán, Peru's highest summit at 6,768 metres. The range holds hundreds of glacial lakes and the largest glaciated area anywhere in the tropics, with several peaks rising above 6,000 metres. UNESCO recognised the region as a Biosphere Reserve in 1977 and inscribed the national park as a World Heritage Site in 1985.
Getting there
Laguna 69 lies about 20 km in a straight line north-east of Yungay and about 57 km north of Huaraz, the regional capital and the usual base for the Cordillera Blanca. The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Comandante FAP Germán Arias Graziani Airport (ATA) at Anta near Huaraz, about 37 km away, with flights to Lima; the coastal airport of Chimbote (CHM) is about 100 km away. The walking route starts at the Cebolla Pampa campsite.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Alpamayo 15.1 km · summit
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Lake 69 is a small lake near of the city of Huaraz, in the region of Áncash, Peru. It is one of the more than 400 lakes that form part of the Huascarán National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site. In the thaw season, the lake is nourished by a waterfall from Chacraraju.
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