Peru 2015 – Huaraz – Pastoruri Glacier

Getting There

I got on a night bus from Lima without a plan, hostel, nothing… Basically I was going to figure it out when I arrived early in the morning to Huaraz, a mountain city in the Cordillera Mountain Range. It is home to the highest mountain in Peru, Huascanán. Fortunately for me, at the terminal I befriended an awesome couple (Brian and Ineke) and ended up staying at the same hostel as them.

The Trip

I showed up to the hostel at like 7:00am, checked in and by 9:00am was on a bus with a nice group of people to check out the Pastoruri Glacier. It’s located at approximately 5,020m above sea level, making this the first time I have broken the 5,000m mark!!! I am well used to high altitude living, but I admit I suffered a bit hiking the 45 minutes from the entrance to the glacier itself. My legs felt like two refrigerators, which was kind of cool! Also along the way we saw some interesting plants, cave paintings, and a pool with natural gas… but the reason for the trip was to see the glacier.

The Glacier

The Pastoruri Glacier is a cirque glacier and one of the few tropical glaciers left in South America. It’s about 8 square km. in size, but used to be much bigger; it has already lost 22% of its size in the last 30+ years and continues to retreat (1). According to the tour guide it retreats 19m per year. It was the first glacier I had ever seen and was quite pretty. From a distance it did not look all that big but once you get up close you realize just how massive it really is. While there is also started snowing which made it all the more magical… I have not seen snow in almost 3 years at this point!

Overall Impressions

I really like the Huaraz area and the mountains in the Cordillera Blanca. The combination of breaking 5,000m for the first time and the snow made it quite special for me. It was a nice introduction to the area and prepared me well for the day hikes which were to come.