Mountain · Peru
Huascarán
Huascarán is the highest mountain in Peru, a twin-peaked mass of ice and granite in the Cordillera Blanca, the tallest tropical range. On its summit you weigh less than anywhere else on Earth.
Picture credit: Carlo Brescia (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Carlo Brescia (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Txolo (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Huascarán?
Huascarán is part of the Cordillera Blanca (Andes).
You will find it in: Peru.
Summit: 9.122° S, 77.604° W
The story behind it
Huascarán has two summits, and the southern one, at 6 768 metres, is the high point of Peru and of the entire tropics. The American climber Annie Smith Peck led the team that first stood on the north summit in September 1908. The south summit waited until July 1932, when a German and Austrian party reached it. Because the mountain is both very high and close to the equator, gravity is weaker on its summit than anywhere else on the planet, roughly 9.7639 metres per second squared. Many people in the valley call the mountain Mataraju, from Quechua words meaning twin snow peak. Its glaciers feed the rivers of the Callejón de Huaylas below, and the whole area is protected as Huascarán National Park.
Find it on the globe
Huascarán is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How high is Huascarán?
The south summit reaches 6 768 metres. It is the highest point in Peru and the highest mountain anywhere in the tropics; the north summit is a little lower, at about 6 655 metres.
Where is Huascarán?
In northern Peru, in the Cordillera Blanca, inside Huascarán National Park and above the long valley called the Callejón de Huaylas.
Why do you weigh less on top of Huascarán?
Gravity is weakest there because the summit is very high and sits close to the equator, where the planet bulges outward. Measurements give about 9.7639 metres per second squared, the lowest value known on Earth.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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