Mountain of the Week - Salkantay

August 21st, 2007 Wade

I just returned from Peru (just before the big quake… wow). And since the center piece of my trip there was to trek through the Andes and up over a high pass which skirts the glaciers on Mt. Salkantay, I thought this was a good opportunity to showcase this beautiful mountain. Not the highest in the Andes, but certainly a beautiful mountain that is apparently rarely climbed due to its difficulty according to our guide.

Mount Salkantay - (20,574 ft - 6,271M)

From Wikipedia -

Salcantay is a large, steep peak, “the most spectacular peak of the region”,^[9] with great vertical relief, particularly above the low valleys to the north, which are tributaries of the Amazon River.

Salcantay was first climbed in 1952 by a French-American expedition comprising Fred D. Ayres, David Michael, Jr., John C. Oberlin, W. V. Graham Matthews, Austen F. Riggs, George I. Bell, Claude Kogan, M. Bernard Pierre, and Jean Guillemin. All except Oberlin, Riggs, and Guillemin made the summit.^[9]

The standard route on the mountain is the Northeast ridge. Accessing the route typically involves three days of travel from Cusco. The climb involves about 1,800 m (5,900 ft) of vertical gain, on glacier, snow, ice, and some rock. The route is graded AD on the French adjectival scale.^[4]

The name Salcantay is from salqa meaning wild, uncivilized, or savage, and was recorded as early as 1583.^[10] The name is thus often translated as “Savage Mountain”.

Directly to the north of Salcantay lies Machu Picchu, which is at the end of a ridge that extends down from this mountain. Viewed from Machu Picchu, the Southern Cross is above Salcantay’s summit when at its highest point in the sky during the rainy season. The Incas associated this alignment with concepts of rain and fertility, and considered Salcantay to be one of the principal deities controlling weather and fertility in the region west of Cuzco. ^[11]

Entry Filed under: General, Mountain of the Week