Hiking Guide: Laguna 69 Overnight, Huaraz

Laguna 69 is by far the most popular hike in Cordillera Blanca near Huaraz, Peru. It’s a tough day hike, perfect for acclimatising before conquering a multi-day hike such as the Huayhuash, but it’s also popular with travellers who only have a short amount of time.

We wanted to add an extra challenge onto this hike, to really prepare for our 10 day Huayhuash hike the following week. We decided to hike Laguna 69 as an overnight trek, taking a different route to the lake via Refugio Peru.

After spending about 5 days in Huaraz acclimatising and completing the Laguna 513 day hike (another gorgeous but tough day hike, and a lot less busy), we packed our warm clothes and our camping gear and headed out to the trail!

How to get there/back:

We decided it was easiest to book onto two separate Laguna 69 tours - one to drop us there the first day, and one to take us home the following day. It was a little more expensive than public transport, costing us PEN60/AUD$23.10/USD$16 per person each way, but public transport in Huaraz was confusing and not always on a schedule, and without guaranteed room for our bags.

Our hostel host, Alan at Mariandes Hostel, helped us book these tours. We were picked up from our hostel at 5am, and drove 3.5 hours out to the starting point of the Laguna 69 trail.

On the way there, we stopped at a cafe for those who wanted to grab breakfast/coffee or needed to use the bathroom.

We arrived at the trailhead at 9:30am, and whilst the group went on the standard track up to the lake, we veered off to the left to commence our hike up to our campsite!

The Hike - Day 1:

After a pitstop to take some photos of the two beautiful green-blue lakes at the base of the mountain - Lagunas de Llanganuco, we carried on for 10 minutes to the base of the mountain range, where we paid our Huascaran National Park entrance fee of PEN60/AUD$23.10/USD$16 for our three-day ticket. A one day ticket is half of this.

After having arrived at the base of the trail, we spent the first 45-minutes relaxing in the sun and having a morning tea snack. We weren’t in a rush that day, as it’s a short but steep hike on Day One. The hike is 3.5km to the refugio, and 765m elevation.

You start the hike at 3900m elevation, so you are already quite high up and the air is a lot thinner than down in Huaraz! We still felt short of breath despite being in altitude for 5 days already. Between that and the heat, it was a struggle for us and it ended up taking us about 4.5 hours, including a stop for lunch at a beautiful viewpoint on the side of the trail.

The trail was very straight-forward, there aren't any opportunities for wrong turns and getting lost, and apart from the two horse-drivers with their horses and donkeys carrying down gear, we didn’t see any other hikers until we reached the refugio!

We reached the refugio at about 3:30pm, and the sun was already starting to set behind the mountains, with the temperature drastically dropping. As we were camping opposed to staying in the refugio, we found a spot about 100m from the refugio in a flat paddock that looked out over the mountains - a truely beautiful spot. By the time we set up our tent, it was very cold - despite it still being light, I had to rug up in my puffer jacket, my beanie and gloves, and cooked dinner leaning outside of the tent with my bottom half rugged up in my sleeping bag! I was warned it would be cold, but I was not expecting that cold. If I had to take a guess, it was around -5͒ C.

Despite the cold, we slept soundly that night, which was a blessing given our early start the next morning!

The Hike - Day 2:

We awoke to the sound of llamas grazing near our tent, shortly before our alarms went off at 6am in time for the sunrise. It was a spectacular sunrise, with pastel orange clouds illuminating the sky. That alone was worth the early and cold start!

After a quick (or, at least quick for us) pack up of our tent and gear, we hit the trail at 6:30am. The start of the trail to Laguna 69 was very rocky, and involved a lot of clambering! We stopped at a picturesque baby blue lake just under 1km into the hike to cook breakfast and fuel ourselves with coffee. Whilst we sat here, a group of 4 people overtook us - the only other people we would end up seeing on the trail to Laguna 69! They had stayed in the refugio the night before, and some of them had summited Nevado Pisco the day before - a moderate mountain climbing hike that you need to do with a guide and proper equipment.

Once we finished breakfast, we continued on our way to Laguna 69. The trail was only 3.5km from the lake we stopped at, with slight inclines - nothing to strenuous. The last part was a bit difficult to stick to the trail, so we relied on AllTrails to send us in the right direction. When we veered off track, we had to do some bushwhacking for 50 or so metres to get back on it, which caused some scratched up legs!

After a relatively easy morning and a few breaks to soak in our surroundings, we made it to Laguna 69 by 10:30am. Surprisingly, there were already about 15 or so people there - but we found a secluded spot to the side of the lake to have a picnic lunch in peace.

Within an hour of us getting there, the lakefront where the main trail finishes was absolutely packed, with at least 60 people crowded in the relatively small area. I don’t think many people realised you could walk around to the side we were on, which was much less busy and had incredible views!

We made our way back down at midday, as we had 7km to walk down hill to get to our bus which departed at 3pm. Given we hadn’t walked up that trail, we didn’t know how hard it would be on our knees going down or what the conditions were like, but it was a relatively fast walk down. It was a very scenic walk, looking out over the valley and passing a smaller lake and an optional 750m side trail to another lake.

Within an hour of us getting there, the lakefront where the main trail finishes was absolutely packed, with at least 60 people crowded in the relatively small area. I don’t think many people realised you could walk around to the side we were on, which was much less busy and had incredible views!

We made our way back down at midday, as we had 7km to walk down hill to get to our bus which departed at 3pm. Given we hadn’t walked up that trail, we didn’t know how hard it would be on our knees going down or what the conditions were like, but it was a relatively fast walk down. It was a very scenic walk, looking out over the valley and passing a smaller lake and an optional 750m side trail to another lake.

Top Tips:

• Cocoa leaves seem to help some people with altitude – myself included. Chewing on leaves for a few minutes settles my stomach and gets rid of any dizziness I feel, so it’s a good idea to bring some in case it works for you. You can pick these up all over Huaraz, especially in the markets or at the supermarket.

• As mentioned, it gets very cold at night, and very hot in the day. Bring lots of warm clothes and a good sleeping bag, as well as sunscreen.

• If you don’t want to camp, there is the option to stay at Refugio Peru. When we went in early June, there were only 4 people staying there, so they had lots of rooms available. It cost PEN150/AUD$58/USD$40 for a bed, dinner and breakfast. You still need to bring your sleeping bag (you can hire these in Huaraz).

• Drinking water is even more important at altitude. I’d recommend bringing a LifeStraw or water purification tablets so you can refill your bottle along the way.