The Cordillera Blanca is the highest tropical mountain range in the world. It holds more than fifty peaks above 5,700 metres, sixteen above 6,000, and Huascaran at 6,768 metres, the highest point in Peru and the highest point anywhere in the tropics. Huaraz, at 3,052 metres in the Callejon de Huaylas valley below it, is the base for all of it, and it is a functional trekking town rather than a pretty one: the 1970 Ancash earthquake and the debris avalanche that followed destroyed most of the old city and killed tens of thousands of people.
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What people come for is a set of day hikes and multi-day treks of a quality that is hard to match anywhere: Laguna 69, a turquoise glacial lake below Chacraraju; Laguna Paron; the Santa Cruz trek over the Punta Union pass at 4,750 metres; and Laguna Churup, which involves a scramble on fixed ropes. Almost all of it happens above 4,000 metres, and that single fact is what this packing list is built around. Huaraz is the destination in this library where getting the preparation wrong has the most serious consequences.
What Makes Huaraz Different to Pack For
Altitude, which is the whole story
The town sits at 3,052 metres. Laguna 69 tops out at about 4,600 metres and the Santa Cruz trek crosses 4,750. The standard Laguna 69 day tour leaves Huaraz at 5am and puts unacclimatised people at 4,600 metres within five hours. That is how visitors end up with serious altitude sickness here, and it is entirely avoidable by spending two or three days acclimatising first.
A merino wool base layer for women is the foundation layer for every day of this trip. At 4,600 metres you will be sweating on the climb and freezing at the lake within ten minutes of stopping, and wool is the fibre that handles both.
Two seasons, and only one works
The dry season runs May to September and is the trekking season. The wet season, roughly December to March, brings cloud, rain, snow on the passes and closed routes. April and October are transitional. Within the dry season, nights below freezing are normal at altitude.
A huge daily temperature swing
Huaraz runs 18°C to 22°C by day and 2°C to 6°C at night. At trekking altitude, add strong sun by day and well below zero before dawn.
Extreme UV
Thin air, tropical latitude, snow and water reflecting. Among the highest UV readings on earth.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Huaraz Packing List
Footwear
Proper waterproof hiking boots with ankle support, broken in before you arrive. The trails are loose moraine, scree, stream crossings and boggy pampa, and the Laguna 69 path in particular is a long grind on unstable ground. Waterproof hiking shoes are the minimum acceptable standard and boots are better for the multi-day treks.
Wool socks, at least three pairs, and a spare dry pair in your day bag. Camp shoes or sandals for the evening and for a trek camp.
Clothing
A genuine layering system, not an approximation: wool base layer top and bottom, a fleece or light down mid layer, a waterproof and windproof shell, and for the treks an insulated jacket for camp. Warm hat, buff, gloves, and sun gloves if you burn on the backs of your hands.
A packable rain jacket if it is genuinely waterproof; hail and sleet happen at altitude in any month. Waterproof overtrousers for the treks.
Huaraz town is casual and practical. Nothing formal is needed. Modest dress in the villages of the Callejon, which are conservative and Quechua speaking.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat, factor 50 sunscreen reapplied constantly, SPF lip balm and category 3 or 4 sunglasses. Snow blindness and severe sunburn are routine injuries here and both happen on cold days, because the cold hides the intensity. Cover the back of your neck and your ears.
Practical
Two to three litres of water capacity and a way to treat stream water on the treks. Cash in soles, since the park entry fees and the villages are cash only. A head torch, because every day tour leaves before dawn. Trekking poles, which make the descents and the stream crossings far easier. Sunscreen, altitude medication discussed with your doctor beforehand, ibuprofen, and coca leaves or tea, which locals use and which help mildly. A power bank, since the cold drains batteries. And a sleeping bag rated well below zero if you are trekking, which most agencies will rent.
What to Wear at Key Places
Acclimatisation, first
Laguna Wilcacocha at 3,750 metres, the Mirador de Rataquenua, and the Willkawain ruins are all short walks from town.
Practically: do two or three of these on your first two days before attempting anything at 4,600 metres. This is the single most important paragraph on this page. Walk slowly, drink water, and if you have a headache that does not respond to painkillers, do not go higher the next day.
Laguna 69
A turquoise lake at about 4,600 metres in Huascaran National Park, reached by a three hour climb from the trailhead at Cebollapampa through a hanging valley.
Practically: the tour leaves Huaraz at 5am, drives three hours, and gives you a 6 kilometre ascent gaining around 600 metres, ending above 4,600. The last section is the steepest and it is where people turn back. Full layers, hat, gloves, sun protection, two litres of water, head torch, snacks. It is cold and windy at the lake. Turn around if you feel genuinely unwell rather than tired; the difference matters.
Laguna Paron
A long turquoise lake at 4,185 metres surrounded by granite walls including the Piramide de Garcilaso, with a viewpoint above it.
Practically: less climbing than Laguna 69 and therefore the better first big outing. The road in is rough. The viewpoint walk is short and steep. Kayaks can be hired.
Laguna Churup
A lake at 4,450 metres reached by a steep route that includes a rock slab section with fixed ropes and chains.
Practically: the rope section is genuinely exposed and involves pulling yourself up wet rock; it is not for anyone uneasy with that, and there is an alternative longer route around it. Grippy boots, gloves for the rope, and an early start.
The Santa Cruz trek
A four day traverse from Cashapampa to Vaqueria crossing the Punta Union pass at 4,750 metres, generally considered one of the finest treks in South America.
Practically: go with a licensed agency that provides a guide, cook, donkeys and proper camping equipment, and confirm what the sleeping bag rating is. Nights are well below freezing. The pass day is long. Acclimatise for three days minimum before starting. Carry your own water treatment and a personal first aid kit regardless of what the agency provides.
Chavin de Huantar and the Callejon
A pre-Inca temple complex from around 1200 BC on the other side of the range, with underground galleries and carved stone heads, plus the villages of Yungay, Caraz and the memorial at the site of the buried town.
Practically: Chavin is a long day over a 4,500 metre pass through a tunnel. The galleries are dark, low and cold, so a torch and a layer. The Yungay memorial marks where 20,000 people were buried by the 1970 avalanche and the old town was left as a cemetery; it is treated as a grave, because it is one.
What Not to Bring
Leave new boots. Leave the plan to do Laguna 69 on your first or second day, which is how this trip goes wrong.
Leave cotton next to your skin. Leave weak sunglasses. Leave a wet season trip if trekking is the point. Leave the cheapest agency if it will not tell you the altitudes and the sleeping bag rating. And leave any assumption that fitness substitutes for acclimatisation, because it does not.
Essential Resources for Women in Huaraz
Emergency numbers in Peru: 105 for police, 116 for fire, 106 for SAMU ambulance. English is not reliable. For a mountain emergency, the Casa de Guias in Huaraz coordinates mountain rescue through the Peruvian mountain guide association, and it is the number your agency and your accommodation will have; the national park office at Huascaran also coordinates. There is no free public helicopter rescue: evacuation is arranged privately and billed, which is why insurance matters here more than anywhere else in this library.
Tourist police: Peru operates a Policia de Turismo with a Huaraz detachment, used to handling theft reports for insurance. iPeru has an office in town and is the service to use for a complaint against a trekking agency, which is a more common problem here than crime.
US Embassy: the US Embassy in Lima at pe.usembassy.gov covers Peru. There is no consular presence in Huaraz, and Lima is eight hours by road. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital Victor Ramos Guardia is the public regional hospital in Huaraz and Clinica San Pablo is the private option, both with emergency capacity and both limited for anything complex. There is a hyperbaric chamber in Huaraz for severe altitude illness. Serious cases go to Lima, eight hours by road or a short flight from Anta airstrip when it is operating. Carry insurance that explicitly covers trekking above 4,000 metres and helicopter evacuation, and check the altitude limit on your policy, because many stop at 3,000 or 4,000 metres.
Official health authority: Peru's Ministerio de Salud at gob.pe/minsa. Altitude sickness is the dominant health risk of this destination. Know the symptoms: headache, nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite, poor sleep. Know the serious ones: confusion, loss of coordination, breathlessness at rest, a cough with froth. The treatment for the serious ones is immediate descent, not rest. There is no yellow fever or malaria risk at this altitude. Tap water is not drinkable.
US State Department travel advisory for Peru: current advisory level and detail, which names specific regions of concern, none of them Ancash. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Peru: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the altitude sickness section, the advice on trekking with licensed guides, the unlicensed taxi warnings and the notes on road blockades from political protest.
Official tourism authority: PromPeru at peru.travel, with SERNANP at gob.pe/sernanp for Huascaran National Park entry fees, route closures and glacier conditions, and the Casa de Guias for licensed guide verification.
Solo women safety assessment: Huaraz is a straightforward place for a woman travelling alone in social terms and a demanding one in physical terms, and the gap between those two is wider here than anywhere else in this library. The town is a small trekking hub full of independent travellers, hostels are sociable and used to solo women, finding a group for a trek is easy, and crime against visitors is low and opportunistic: bag snatching around the market and the bus terminals, and theft from hostel dorms, so use a lockable bag. Street harassment is mild and mostly verbal. Use a taxi booked by your accommodation rather than hailing, which is the standard Peru precaution against express kidnapping, and be aware that the town is quiet and poorly lit after about ten, so take a taxi rather than walking back across it. Drink spiking is not a notable local problem but the usual care applies in the gringo bars. The agency question matters more than any of this: trekking here is sold by a great many operators of wildly varying quality, and the ones to avoid are the ones that will not tell you the altitude of the route, the sleeping bag rating, or whether the guide is licensed. Ask, and verify with the Casa de Guias if you are committing to a multi-day trek. The dominant risk, by a very long way, is altitude. Huaraz is 3,052 metres and the day hikes reach 4,600. Altitude sickness is common here, it is indifferent to fitness and youth, and it kills people in this range every year. Acclimatise for two to three days, ascend slowly, drink water, avoid alcohol early on, and treat confusion, breathlessness at rest or loss of coordination as an emergency requiring immediate descent rather than a rest day. After altitude: cold at night that people underestimate, extreme UV including snow blindness, unstable moraine and scree that turns ankles, stream crossings that rise through the day with glacial melt, and rockfall in the moraine valleys. Do not hike alone off the popular routes, tell your accommodation your plan and expected return, and note that phone signal is absent in most of the park. Glacial lake outburst floods are a recognised hazard in this valley and the park monitors them. Finally, the night bus from Lima is the standard arrival and the mountain road is long and winding, so choose a reputable company and travel in daylight if you can.
Reading On
Huaraz is eight hours from Lima by road and is the best mountain trekking base in Peru, with the caveat that it demands acclimatisation. The Peru travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Peru packing list for women covers a trip across it. South, the Lima packing list for women is the arrival city and the Arequipa packing list for women covers the white city and the Colca Canyon, which is the other high altitude trip in the country. South east, the Cusco packing list for women and the Machu Picchu packing list for women cover the Inca heartland. East, the Iquitos packing list for women is the Amazon and the opposite of all of this. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why wool is the base layer when you are sweating on a climb and freezing ten minutes later at 4,600 metres, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
