CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Yauya it runs 1202 km to Yauya; allow about 20 h 44 of riding. On the way it passes Segment Canrash - Torrepampa, Huascarán National Park, Segment Tambillo - Pincosh and Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 66 km this is Peru Huascaran Circuit, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
East of the Cordillera Blanca, in the region of Ancash known as the Conchucos, the Inca road system, the Qhapaq Ñan, crossed some of the most rugged terrain of its entire network. This segment, near the small town of Yauya, is part of the main road that ran north from Cusco to Quito through the high Andes, linking administrative centres such as Huánuco Pampa to the south. The Inca engineers laid stone paving, built steps on steep slopes, retaining walls and drainage channels, and stretches of the road can still be walked today, threading across high grasslands and past lakes at altitudes well over three and a half thousand metres. The whole network, which crosses six countries, became a World Heritage site in 2014.
Read the complete Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 is where the day begins. Next is Segment Canrash - Torrepampa.
The Inca road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, once linked an empire stretching from Colombia to Chile, and this segment, between Canrash and Torrepampa, runs through the high valleys of the Conchucos region in Ancash, east of the Cordillera Blanca. The Inca road here was a stone-paved trail, with steps, retaining walls and drainage channels, built for runners, soldiers and llama caravans rather than wheels. Much of it survives, winding along hillsides above the river valleys, and it is part of the transnational World Heritage listing for the Andean road system.
Read the complete Segment Canrash - Torrepampa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Canrash - Torrepampa comes up about 118 km into the recorded legs. Next is Huascarán National Park.
The Cordillera Blanca is the highest tropical mountain range on earth, and Huascarán National Park protects most of it: dozens of peaks over six thousand metres, hundreds of glaciers and glacial lakes, and high valleys of grass and rock. Huascarán itself, at 6,768 metres, is the highest mountain in Peru, a twin-summited giant of ice and snow that dominates the Callejón de Huaylas, the long valley of the Santa river below. The park was listed by UNESCO in 1985, and it is one of the great mountain landscapes of the world.
Read the complete Huascarán National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 329 km into the recorded legs you reach Huascarán National Park. Next is Segment Tambillo - Pincosh.
This is high, remote country. The Tambillo to Pincosh segment of the Qhapaq Ñan crosses the puna of the Ancash and Huánuco highlands, east of the Cordillera Blanca, at altitudes of around four thousand metres, part of the stretch of the Inca road that ran north from Cusco through the Andes towards Quito. The road here was the main artery of the empire, with tambos, way stations, every day's walk or so, where travellers, messengers and armies could rest and find supplies. Tambillo, the little tambo, suggests one of those stations. Today, the road survives as a stone-paved path with retaining walls and drainage channels, crossing open grassland, wetlands and passes, and it is one of the best-preserved sections of the network, listed by UNESCO along with the rest of the Qhapaq Ñan.
Read the complete Segment Tambillo - Pincosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Tambillo - Pincosh, about halfway. Next is Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata.
The Qhapaq Ñan, the great road network of the Inca Empire, ran for thousands of kilometres along the Andes, linking the capital Cusco with the far corners of an empire that stretched from Colombia to Chile. In the department of Huánuco, in central Peru, one of its best preserved sections crosses the high puna between the administrative centre of Huánuco Pampa and the valleys to the north, and the segment between Taparaku and the Tambo de Llata is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2014.
Read the complete Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata sits at 601 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Tambillo - Pincosh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Tambillo - Pincosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Tambillo - Pincosh comes up about 716 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Huascarán National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Huascarán National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 873 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Huascarán National Park. Next is back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Canrash - Torrepampa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa, late in the day. Next is Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1202 km.
Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 → Segment Canrash - Torrepampa is 118 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Canrash - Torrepampa → Huascarán National Park is 211 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Huascarán National Park → Segment Tambillo - Pincosh is 157 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Tambillo - Pincosh → Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata is 115 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata → back through Segment Tambillo - Pincosh is 115 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Tambillo - Pincosh → back through Huascarán National Park is 157 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Huascarán National Park → back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa is 211 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa → Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 is 118 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.