Nevado Alpamayo

Alpamayo is 5,947 metres, not especially high by Cordillera Blanca standards, and its reputation rests entirely on shape: a steep trapezoidal ice face fluted from top to bottom by melt channels, so regular it looks carved. A German photographic survey and a subsequent magazine poll in 1966 named it the most beautiful mountain in the world, and the title has been attached to it ever since. The famous south-west face, the Ferrari route, is a 400-metre wall of ice at around sixty degrees, and it is a serious technical climb, not a trekking peak - fatal accidents occur on it. Most visitors see Alpamayo from the trek instead: the Alpamayo circuit or Santa Cruz variants bring you to viewpoints at Punta Unión or the base camp above Laguna Arhuaycocha, several days from the nearest road, and the fluting is only visible from the correct angle.

What you actually see

• The face - the fluted ice pyramid that produced the reputation.
• The 1966 poll - the survey that named it the world's most beautiful mountain.
• The Ferrari route - a 400-metre ice wall at around sixty degrees.
• The viewpoints - Punta Unión and Arhuaycocha, both several days on foot.

When to go

June to August is the climbing season. Reaching a viewpoint is a multi-day trek from Cashapampa or Hualcayán; the climb takes eight to ten days with acclimatisation.

Honest expectations

The famous shape shows only from certain angles - many trekkers see it as an unremarkable white triangle. Climbing is technical mountaineering with real fatality risk, not a guided walk-up. Even the viewpoints require several days of camping above 4,000 metres.

Nearby

The Santa Cruz trek passes close; Caraz is the nearest town.