Huascarán

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Tallest mountain in Peru

title: "Huascarán" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mountains-of-the-department-of-ancash", "huascarán-national-park", "avalanches", "landslides-in-peru", "highest-points-of-countries", "six-thousanders-of-the-andes"] description: "Tallest mountain in Peru" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huascarán" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Tallest mountain in Peru ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

FieldValue
nameHuascarán
photoNevado Huascarán (south view).jpg
photo_captionHuascarán as viewed from Cordillera Negra
elevation_m6768
elevation_ref
prominence_m2776
prominence_ref
rangeCordillera Blanca, Andes
listingCountry high point
Ultra
locationYungay, Peru
mapPeru
map_captionPeru
map_size240
coordinates
coordinates_ref
typeGranite
ageCenozoic
first_ascent
easiest_routeglacier/snow/ice climb
::

| name = Huascarán | photo = Nevado Huascarán (south view).jpg | photo_caption = Huascarán as viewed from Cordillera Negra | elevation_m = 6768 | elevation_ref = | prominence_m = 2776 | prominence_ref = | range = Cordillera Blanca, Andes | listing = Country high point Ultra | location = Yungay, Peru | map = Peru | range_coordinates = | map_caption = Peru | map_size = 240 | label_position = | coordinates = | coordinates_ref = | topo = | type = Granite | age = Cenozoic | first_ascent = | easiest_route = glacier/snow/ice climb

Huascarán (, wass ka RAHN; Quechua: Waskaran), Nevado Huascarán or Mataraju is a mountain located in Yungay Province, Ancash Department, Peru. It is situated in the Cordillera Blanca range of the western Andes. The southern summit of Huascarán (Huascarán Sur), which reaches 6768 m, is the highest point in Peru, the northern Andes (north of Lake Titicaca), and in all of the Earth's tropics. It is the fourth highest mountain in South America after Aconcagua, Ojos del Salado, and Monte Pissis. Huascarán is ranked 25th by topographic isolation.

Names

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Mount_Huascaran_viewed_from_Yungay,Peru(cropped).jpg" caption="Yungay"] ::

Until the 20th century, the mountain lacked a single commonly accepted name and was known by different names within the surrounding towns and villages. The first recorded mention of the name Huascarán appeared in 1850 as Huascan, given by the local people likely because the mountain rises above the village of Huashco. Huashco got its name from the Quechua word for rope (waska). At the beginning of the 20th century, the name appeared as Huascarán, and has not changed since. It seems that Huascarán is merely a contraction of Huashco-Urán, or 'beyond and down from the village of Huashco'.

Other names given to the mountain are Matarao and Mataraju, the latter being the name that local indigenous people prefer to call it, from Ancash Quechua mata ('twin') and rahu ('snow peak'), meaning 'twin snow peaks'.

Myth

According to a legend, Huascarán was a nobleman who lived in a certain place in Áncash, while Huandoy was a woman who lived in a small town very close to where that mountain is. Huascarán was enormously in love with the woman, and they always saw each other secretly. One day Huascarán's father found out that he was in love with the lowborn woman, so he asked the Sun God for help. Seeing that he could not separate the two lovers, he decided to turn them into mountains, but the divinity decided to bring them together so that despite being mountains they continued with their love.

Geography

The mountain has two distinct summits, the higher being the south one (Huascarán Sur) with an elevation of 6768 m. The north summit (Huascarán Norte) has an elevation of 6654 meters. The two summits are separated by a saddle called la Garganta. The core of Huascarán, like much of the Cordillera Blanca, consists of Cenozoic-age granite.

Huascarán gives its name to Huascarán National Park which surrounds it, and is a popular location for trekking and mountaineering. The mountain's summit is one of the farthest points on the Earth's surface from its center, closely behind the farthest point at Chimborazo in Ecuador. It is also the place on Earth with the smallest gravitational force, with an estimated acceleration of 9.76392 m/s2.

Climbing

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Mirador_del_Huascarán.jpg" caption="miradores}}) found alongside the road to the mountain"] ::

Huascarán is normally climbed from the village of Musho to the west via a high camp in the Garganta col. The ascent normally takes five to seven days, the main difficulty being the large crevasses that often block the route. The normal route is of moderate difficulty and rated between PD and AD (depending on the conditions of the mountain) according to the International French Adjectival System.

History

The summit of Huascarán Sur was first reached on 20 July 1932 by Erwin Schneider, , Franz Bernard, Phillip Borchers, Erwin Hein who were members of a joint German–Austrian expedition. The team followed what would later become the normal route (the Garganta route). The north peak (Huascarán Norte) had previously been climbed on 2 September 1908 by a U.S. expedition that included Annie Smith Peck, though this first ascent is somewhat disputed.

In 1989, a group of eight amateur mountaineers, the "Social Climbers", held what was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records (1990 edition) to be "the world's highest dinner party" on top of the mountain, as documented by Chris Darwin and John Amy in their book The Social Climbers, and raised £10,000 for charity.

On 20 July 2016, nine climbers were caught in an avalanche on Huascarán's normal route at approximately 5800 m, four of whom died.

On 9 July 2024, it was reported that the body of William Stampfl, an American mountaineer, had been found 22 years after he disappeared in an avalanche in June 2002. The body of one of Stampfl's climbing companions had previously been recovered. A third member of the group is still unaccounted for.

Huascarán Norte

Apart from the normal route, climbed in 1908 and rated PD+/AD-, all the other routes are committing and serious.

  1. Northwest ridge (Italian route), rated ED1/ED2 climbed on 25 July 1974 by E. Detomasi, C. Piazzo, D. Saettone and T. Vidone.
  2. Northwest face (Polish–Czech variant), rated ED1/ED2, climbed on 14 July 1985 by B. Danihelkova, Z. Hofmannová, A. Kaploniak, E. Parnejko and E. Szczesniak.
  3. North face (Paragot route), rated ED1, climbed on 10 July 1966 by R. Paragot, R. Jacob, C. Jacoux and D. Leprince-Ringuet.
  4. North face (Swiss route), rated ED2+, climbed on 23 May 1986 by D. Anker and K. Saurer. This route requires at least four days on the face.
  5. North face (Spanish route), rated ED2+, climbed on 20 July 1983 by J. Moreno, C. Valles and J. Tomas.

Huascarán Sur

As for the South summit, apart from the normal route all the others are difficult.

  1. West ridge (Shield route), rated D+, climbed on 15 June 1969 by W. Broda, S. Merler and B. Segger. Approach as for the Garganta route but then the route develops over the knife-edge West ridge before getting to the summit icefield.
  2. West ridge direct (Lomo fino route), rated TD-, was climbed on 7 July 2007 by M. Ybarra and S. Sparano. Approach as for the Garganta route but afterwards the route develops straight over the West face.
  3. Northeast ridge (Spanish route), rated TD+, was climbed on 18 July 1961 by F. Mautino, P. Acuna, A. Perez and S. Rivas. The route starts from Chopicalqui col, crosses the upper part of the Matara glacier and reaches the northeast ridge developing across cornices and snow mushrooms.

1970 earthquake

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Yungay_avalanche_labels.jpg" caption="Photograph taken after the 1970 avalanche showing the buried towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca"] ::

Main article: 1970 Huascarán debris avalanche

On 31 May 1970, the Ancash earthquake caused a substantial part of the north side of the mountain to collapse in an avalanche with an estimated 80 e6m3 of ice, mud and rock, measuring about 0.5x1 mi. It advanced about 11 mi at an average speed of 280 to, burying the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca under ice and rock, killing more than 20,000 people. At least 20,000 people were also killed in Huaraz, the site of a 1941 avalanche (see Lake Palcacocha). Estimates suggest that the earthquake killed over 66,000 people. The final toll was 67,000 dead and 800,000 homeless, making it the worst earthquake-induced disaster in the Western Hemisphere until the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Also buried by an avalanche was a Czechoslovak mountaineering team, none of whose 15 members were ever seen again. This and other earthquake-induced avalanche events are often described as "eruptions" of Huascarán, despite not being of volcanic origin.

An earlier avalanche on 10 January 1962, caused by a rapid rise in temperature, killed an estimated 4,000 people.

Bibliography

References

References

  1. Helman, Adam. (2005). "The Finest Peaks: Prominence and Other Mountain Measures". Trafford.
  2. "ultra-prominences". peaklist.org.
  3. Julyan, Robert Hixson. (1984-09-01). "Mountain names". Mountaineers.
  4. (1967). "Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times". Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times.
  5. "Quechua Names in the Northern Peruvian Andes and Their Meanings - AAC Publications - Search The American Alpine Journal and Accidents".
  6. (3 February 2018). "Enock. "The andes and the amazon", 1907.".
  7. Ricker, John F., ''Yuraq Janka: Cordilleras Blanca and Rosko'', Alpine Club of Canada, 1977, {{ISBN. 0-920330-04-5, after Wilson, Reyes, and Garayar, 1967.
  8. (16 April 2004). "Tall Tales about Highest Peaks". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  9. (September 4, 2013). "Gravity Variations Over Earth Much Bigger Than Previously Thought". Science Daily.
  10. (28 August 2013). "New ultrahigh-resolution picture of Earth's gravity field: New Picture of Earth's Gravity Field". Geophysical Research Letters.
  11. Biggar, John
  12. "1932 ascent". huascaranperu.net.
  13. Borchers. (1933). "In the Cordillera Blanca ; the 1932 D .ce Oe. A.-V. Expedition". Alpine Journal.
  14. "Annie Smith Peck". Dr. Russell A. Potter.
  15. Monge-Nájera, Julián. (1995). "ABC de la evolución". EUNED.
  16. (21 September 2007). "Mouth-watering challenge". Epping Forest Guardian.
  17. (21 July 2016). "Avalanche On Huascaran In Andes Of Peru Kills 4, 5 Rescued - A Mountain Journey". A Mountain Journey | Backcountry Skiing, Climbing, Mountaineering, Hiking.
  18. (2024-07-09). "American mountaineer found mummified in Peru 22 years after vanishing".
  19. (2024-07-10). "22 Years Ago, He Disappeared in an Avalanche. His Body Was Just Found.". The New York Times.
  20. (June 1971). "Geological Aspects of the May 31, 1970 Peru Earthquake". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
  21. U.S. Dept. of the Interior. (October 1970). "The Peru Earthquake: a Special Study". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  22. "The Village of Yungay and the Surrounding Countryside". Jay A. Frogel.
  23. Gates & Ritchie p. 110
  24. (2004). "Peru". Lonely Planet.
  25. "Historie československé expedice Peru 1970 (Czech only)".
  26. "Sacred mountains: Myth and Morphology".
  27. (1962-01-11). "1962: Thousands killed in Peru landslide". British Broadcasting Corporation.

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