Hello,

A friend and I will be traveling to Huaraz at the end of July and spending around 2 weeks in the Cordillera Blanca. We've been doing quite a bit of research on mountains in the region, and would like to do our first real climb while we're there. We have no mountaineering experience, so we will go with a guide and choose a route that is not technically difficult. However, we are both distance runners in very good shape and always love a challenge. As for altitude, we have both trekked up to 5000m.

Pisco and Chopi caught our eye. Does anyone have any experience climbing these that can offer some tips, or have any alternative suggestions? We'd love to try something physically tougher, but most that we've read about above 6000m start to require more technical skills. We are willing to do training, but as two college students, staying on a budget is pretty important too.

Thanks for your help!

-Dario

The best place for beginners (with a guide) is the Ishinca valley, with Urus Este and Ishinca as two fine mountains for climbers without mountaineering experience. Pisco is a small step up from that, technically speaking, but still good for beginners. And if you still have time, I recommend Yanapaccha next. Slightly harder, but if Pisco goes well you'll be ready to try it. And as Pisco and Yanapaccha are not far apart, you can combine the two fairly easily.

Chopi is a whole different ball game. Sure, you can try climbing it, but it's certainly not easy, technically. I would be surprised if you got above 6000 m because that's where the hard part starts. And with just two weeks, you won't be acclimatized properly either, which makes it even harder.

Although higher, I found both Huascarán Norte and Sur easier than Chopi. I wouldn't call them easy, but if you've climbed Pisco without any problems you could have a go at them. Conditions vary over the years, and with that the difficulties of the climbs. However, with only two weeks you would be real stressed for time to acclimatize properly, therefore I wouldn't recommend them. It would be good if you could extend your stay to three weeks, then you have at least a fighting chance of succeeding.

Huascarán Norte, the upper 650 m or so. The normal route to follows the south ridge, in profile in the photo. In 2011, the main difficulty was getting on that ridge, way down on the left.

This is perfect- thank you! All look/ sound like great options. What are costs like for guides in Huaraz? I've seen ~$90 per day as the "standard" for easier peaks, but it wasn't clear whether that was per person, if it included gear rentals, etc. Also, for short trips (2-4 days), are porters needed, or is it doable to carry everything on our backs?

dpotter wrote:This is perfect- thank you! All look/ sound like great options. What are costs like for guides in Huaraz? I've seen ~$90 per day as the "standard" for easier peaks, but it wasn't clear whether that was per person, if it included gear rentals, etc. Also, for short trips (2-4 days), are porters needed, or is it doable to carry everything on our backs?

It's been 6 years now, but for the easier peaks 90 USD per day for a guide was the going rate in 2011. That includes Urus Este, Ishinca and Picso; I don't know if it's also the rate for Yanapaccha. Chopi and Huascaran cost more. Prices are per guide, not per person. Rentals are extra. For the Ishinca valley you can get your gear carried to basecamp by mules, no porters needed. If you're feeling strong you can your stuff yourself; some people do, some don't. For Pisco you can also use mules, for Yanapaccha not. I carried my own stuff.

If you do decide to stay longer and then try something higher, having porters means saving energy, and you'll need that higher up. It would be a bit different if you were there for a longer period. I spent almost four months in Peru, and as you'll imagine I was well acclimatized. Nevertheless we still hired porters (with glacier skills) for my last big climb, which, coincidentally, was Chopi. It's not all that expensive and as a result we had plenty of energy for climbing. On the other hand, earlier in my trip, for both of my visits to Huascaran we only had porters bring our stuff up to the refugio, so we only had to pay for one day. Could have done that for Chopi too of course, but I wanted to save energy, to maximize our chances for success. And Peru had been much cheaper than I had anticipated so I was way under budget.

I was in there in May, from my understanding guides are a bit more expensive than that. I think you can expect closer to $120-150 a day (per guide not per person). Rental gear is separate as rgg said. I have prices compiled in a spreadsheet from several providers if you're interested.

There are a ton of tour agencies offering frequent trips to the easier mountains above (pisco, ishinca) so you may have luck shopping around and joining an already organized tour. Usually these come with gear rentals. However, some have really bad reputations so do your research ahead of time. Better to be safe than cheap. Ive seen people start bidding wars going back and forth between multiple agencies to get the price down which you might try... remember prices may be inflated for gringos, so you may have margin to bargain.

Alternatively go to the casa de guias in Parque Ginebra and you can get set up with a guide directly, and next door at the tourism office they can give you info on logistics and travel.

As far as mountains, another popular introductory one to consider is Vallunaraju. You can see it from Huaraz and its only a 2 day trip so its convenient. Lots of organized trips here as well. I didn't climb Chopi but based on what I heard I wouldn't recommend it either to you at this point.

Whatever you end up doing, acclimatization is key.

Send me a PM if you want more info