Pastoruri Glacier

Pastoruri is the glacier ordinary visitors can reach: a road climbs from the Pachacoto turn-off to a car park at about 4,860 metres, and a paved path of a couple of kilometres leads to the ice at around 5,000. For years it was a ski and ice-climbing destination. It is not any more. Pastoruri has lost well over half its surface since the 1980s, split into separate bodies, and the tongue that people once walked on has retreated so far that the park service rebranded the visit as the Ruta del Cambio Climático - the Route of Climate Change - with interpretive signs marking where the ice stood in past decades. Visitors now walk past a series of markers to a shrunken ice wall above a meltwater lagoon, and access onto the ice itself is prohibited. The approach road passes the Puya raimondii stands, and horses are available for the path.

What you actually see

• The ice wall - what remains of a glacier that has lost more than half its area.
• The markers - signs showing where the ice front stood in past decades.
• The meltwater lagoon - the lake that formed as the tongue retreated.
• The path - paved, a couple of kilometres, finishing near 5,000 metres.

When to go

May to September. Tours run from Huaraz as a full day, usually with a stop at the Puya raimondii stands. Horses are available for those struggling with the walk.

Honest expectations

Five thousand metres is the highest most visitors ever stand, and altitude sickness on this walk is very common. Walking on the ice is prohibited. The glacier is visibly diminished, and people expecting a large glacier are often disappointed - which is now the point of the visit.

Nearby

The Puya raimondii forest is on the same approach road; Catac and Huaraz are north.