Quartelhuain – Janca – Carhuacocha – Huayhuahs – Huayllapa
January 2026
After having done the Choquequirao trek, the second part of holiday in Peru had as it’s main aim a trek in the Huayhuash range. This world famous range is one of Peru’s most classic trekking areas. With good reason, even though the mountains might need be the highest that can be found, their steepness and density together with the many lakes and hiking opportunities, make this area very suitable for long distance hikes.
Season
The best season for hiking the Huayhuash is generally accepted to be the Andes dry season, May to September. We visited the range in January and indeed got quite a few downpours. One day was completely wet, but most other days enjoyed good weather till around noon after which the weather become more unstable.
Despite the rain and resulting muddy trails hiking is still very much possible and views can still be had. The up side of the rainy season is that there is quite literally no one else on the trail, whereas in peak season I can imagine the trail to get quite a busy.
We understood that the rains had only just started, so as ideal season that compromises between weather and crowds one could maybe consider December as a good time to go. The rains are likely to not yet swoop in under full force but you are nonetheless likely to find the trails empty.
Day 1
We were repeatedly told that the weather would be clearest early morning and that the rains would set in only after noon. For that reason we left Huaraz very early in the morning. As it slowly got light the rule of thumb seemed correct. The weather was crystal clear and we had some rather grandiose views of the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Huaraz in the far distance.
The drive took shorter than I had thought. The Andes is very different from the Himalaya in which the mountains go on for all some time. Here however we could drive across a near flat plateau looking over the sharp snow peaks east of us. Only the last section of the drive when we had to drive into the Andes to Quartelhuain the going got slower.
Our plan had been to cross the Cacanapunta pass straightaway. It would just be 500m up and then down again, a short and easy day to get us started. When we started the ascend Eline however still felt ill forcing us to spent the night at Quartelhuain.
The weather was rather on and off again. We had quite some rain that was then followed by sunshine and sometimes even views over the Yerupaja. In the evening we even got some wet snow.
Day 2
As we woke up the weather was rather terrible. It was not even 6am and the rain was already falling. Not really the morning clear skies we had been promised…
As we had already spent a day extra in Huaraz and a day extra in Quartelhuain we did feel like despite the weather we would need to get on our way. We slowly but steadily hiked up the hill behind the campsite. The Cacanapunta pass was very nearby, in clear weather we would probably have already seen it.
Last frontiers on foot 