The Cordillera Blanca is the highest tropical mountain range in the world, a dense cluster of glaciated peaks — including Huascarán, Peru’s tallest at 6,768m — packed into a stretch of the Andes barely 20km wide. Based out of the trekking town of Huaraz, this region trades Cusco’s Inca ruins for pure high-mountain scenery: sapphire and turquoise glacier lakes, sheer granite walls, and passes that rank among the highest trekked anywhere outside the Himalaya.
The signature multi-day routes are the Santa Cruz Trek, a four-day classic threading beneath Alpamayo — often called the world’s most beautiful mountain — and the longer, more demanding Huayhuash Circuit, consistently rated one of the finest treks on the planet for its density of 5,000m-plus peaks. For those short on time, the Laguna 69 day hike delivers an outsized payoff: a brilliant glacial lake beneath Nevado Chacraraju, reachable and back from Huaraz in a single day.
The dry season (May–September) is essential here — trails and passes above 4,500m become genuinely hazardous in the wet months. Altitude is the main challenge throughout: Huaraz itself sits at 3,050m, and most routes climb well above 4,000m, so a few days’ acclimatisation before setting out is strongly advised.
