Huayhuash Circuit Map Poster

The Huayhuash Circuit is a 110 km (68 mi) trek around the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes, a compact range with seven peaks over 6,000 m (19,700 ft), about three hours from Huaraz. It starts at the roadhead meadow of Cuartelhuain and loops clockwise past Carhuacocha, where Yerupajá, Siula Grande and Jirishanca stand reflected in the lake, then over the high passes of the south and west and down to the village of Llamac.

Most groups take ten days with an arriero and his donkeys, camping by lakes and in meadows, and climb about 6,000 m (19,700 ft) along the way. Almost every step is above 4,000 m (13,100 ft); eight passes top 4,600 m (15,100 ft), and the highest point on the standard route, Punta Cuyoc, reaches about 5,000 m (16,400 ft). There is one village in between, and each local Quechua community collects its own small fee at its own camps.

The range's best-known story belongs to Siula Grande, where Joe Simpson and Simon Yates climbed the west face in 1985 and survived the descent told in Touching the Void. From Paso San Antonio, walkers look straight down the valley Simpson crawled out of. Eight high passes, a mirror lake at sunrise and a donkey or two: relive them all on a Huayhuash Circuit map poster.