Nevado Huaytapallana

Huaytapallana rises to about 5,550 metres on the eastern edge of the Mantaro valley, close enough to Huancayo that a road reaches a pass at around 4,700 metres and a walk of an hour or two brings visitors to the glacier front and the Lasuntay and Chuspicocha lakes below it. The mountain is an apu, a sacred peak in Andean belief, and offerings are made at it, with large gatherings around the Andean new year at the June solstice. It is also one of the clearest illustrations of tropical glacier loss in Peru: Huaytapallana has lost well over half its ice since the 1980s, retreat measured continuously by Peruvian researchers, and the meltwater lakes below have grown as the ice has gone back. Access is a regional conservation area with a fee, and the combination of a road to 4,700 metres and unacclimatised day visitors from Huancayo produces regular altitude problems.

What you actually see

• The glacier front - ice reachable on foot from the road, and visibly retreating.
• The lakes - Lasuntay and Chuspicocha, meltwater turquoise below the ice.
• The apu - a sacred mountain with offerings and solstice gatherings.
• The loss - more than half the ice gone since the 1980s.

When to go

May to September. June around the solstice is busy with ceremonial gatherings. A day trip from Huancayo, starting early before cloud.

Honest expectations

The road reaches 4,700 metres in about two hours from Huancayo, and altitude sickness on arrival is common. Bitterly cold and windy. Ceremonies are religious occasions, not performances - watch from a distance and ask before photographing.

Nearby

Huancayo is west; the Pariahuanca valley continues east.