Huayna Picchu

A 2,693-metre peak in the Vilcabamba range of Peru, immediately north of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu. Huayna Picchu — "young peak" in Quechua — is the steep, near-vertical summit that appears in the background of every photograph of the ruined city. The mountain itself was an integral part of the Inca complex; the upper slopes hold terraces, ceremonial structures, and the Temple of the Moon in a cave on the north face. The Inca trail to the summit has been in continuous use since the 15th century.

The peak was never climbed by Western mountaineers in the modern sense — the route was already there. What climbing exists on Huayna Picchu happens off the established trail, on the rock faces below the summit. These have been climbed since the 1970s by Peruvian rock climbers, who have established several multi-pitch routes on the granite of the lower mountain. The summit itself is reached by stone steps, ladders, and exposed sections of trail that the Inca cut into the rock six centuries ago.

The mountain is included in the Atlas not as a climbing objective in the conventional sense but as one of the most architecturally and culturally significant peaks in the Western Hemisphere. The integration of the Inca structures with the geology of the mountain — the alignment of buildings with celestial events, the use of natural rock as foundations, the engineering of terraces that have not collapsed in five centuries — represents a relationship between human construction and mountain that has few parallels.

Access to the summit is regulated. The Peruvian government issues a limited number of permits each day, and the climb must be completed in a window that allows return by dusk. The trail is exposed in several sections, and the rock is wet for much of the year. Fatalities from falls have occurred. The mountain is not casual, even on its established route.