The Ausangate trek is a five- to six-day camping loop around Apu Ausangate (6,384 m), the highest mountain of the Cordillera Vilcanota, three to four hours by road southeast of Cusco. It starts and ends in the village of Tinki, stays above 4,000 m almost the whole way, and crosses its highest pass, Palomani, at roughly 5,130 to 5,200 m. There is no permit and no daily quota. You pay small community fees in cash as you walk.
It is the hardest of the regular multi-day treks around Cusco, and what makes it hard is altitude and cold, not technique. If you have never slept above 4,000 m, walk to Humantay Lake or do the Salkantay trek first. The dry months, May to September, are the season.
This page is for planning. Exact distances, the elevation profile and the interactive map sit on our Ausangate trail data page. We don’t sell a fixed-departure Ausangate trek, and near the end we explain how we can still help you plan one.
- Ausangate Trek at a Glance
- What the Ausangate Trek Is, and What It Isn’t
- Ausangate Trek Route Options
- A Typical Ausangate Itinerary, Day by Day
- Ausangate Trek Difficulty: How Hard Is It?
- Altitude and Acclimatisation
- Ausangate Trek Map: How the Loop Fits Together
- Best Months for the Ausangate Trek
- Permits and Community Fees
- Getting to Tinki from Cusco
- Guided or Independent, and What It Costs
- Combining Ausangate with Rainbow Mountain, Humantay and Salkantay
- Safety on the Ausangate Trek
- What to Pack
- How We Can Help
Ausangate Trek at a Glance
| Ausangate circuit | |
|---|---|
| Start and finish | Tinki (also spelled Tinqui), about 3,850 m |
| Days on foot | 5 for the classic circuit, 6 with the Rainbow Mountain detour; 1 to 3 day loops near Pacchanta also exist |
| Distance | About 67 to 70 km for the circuit, more with the Rainbow Mountain detour |
| Highest point | Palomani Pass, about 5,130 to 5,200 m |
| Nights | 4 to 5, all camping, roughly between 4,250 and 4,650 m |
| Permit | None. Community fees paid in cash along the way |
| Best months | May to September |
| Nearest full hospital | Cusco, three to four hours from the trailhead |
Published figures for the circuit disagree, for ordinary reasons: some walkers start counting at Tinki, others at the trailhead beyond it, and hand-held GPS units read pass heights differently. Palomani appears as 5,130 m on our data page, 5,165 m in one hiker’s GPS log and 17,060 ft (5,200 m) in another. Plan your gear and your acclimatisation for 5,200 m.
What the Ausangate Trek Is, and What It Isn’t
Ausangate is an apu, a mountain spirit, for the Quechua communities of southern Cusco. The trek follows the paths herders have used for generations to move alpacas and llamas between pastures, past glacier lakes in turquoise, green and red, and over passes where you look straight at hanging ice. You camp on community land, and the small fees you pay along the route go to the families who own it.
What it isn’t: there are no Inca ruins on the circuit and it does not end at Machu Picchu. You walk back to Tinki and drive to Cusco. If arriving at Machu Picchu on foot matters to you, the Salkantay trek or the Inca Trail is the better fit.
Qoyllur Rit’i: plan around it or plan for it
Each year the pilgrimage of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit’i brings tens of thousands of people to the Sinakara valley north of Ausangate. UNESCO inscribed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011 and dates its start to 58 days after Easter Sunday, which puts it around 25 May in 2027. (UNESCO.) Roads, buses and services around Ocongate and Tinki are at their busiest that week. Either build your trip around the festival on purpose, or start your trek a week either side of it.
Ausangate Trek Route Options
| Option | Days | What you see | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacchanta and the lakes below the north face | 1 to 3 | Glacier lakes, Pacchanta hot springs; no crossing of Palomani | Short on time, or testing yourself before a longer trek |
| Classic circuit from Tinki | 5 | All the high passes, Pucacocha, Ausangatecocha, the full loop | Fit trekkers who have already slept above 4,000 m |
| Circuit plus Rainbow Mountain | 6 | The above plus Vinicunca (5,036 m) and the Red Valley from the quiet back side | Those who want Rainbow Mountain without the day-tour crowd |
| Ausangate to Rainbow Mountain, one way | 3 to 4 | The southern half of the loop, ending at Vinicunca | Trekkers who want the high country without the full circuit |
Most guided departures from Cusco run the five-day circuit or the six-day version with Rainbow Mountain. Shorter itineraries trade the highest passes for less time above 4,500 m, which is a reasonable choice, not a lesser one.
A Typical Ausangate Itinerary, Day by Day
Heights below are approximate and come from our trail data and published GPS logs. Camps move with weather, water and which family is hosting that season.
| Day | Route | Pass | Camp |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drive Cusco to Tinki, walk to Upis | None | Upis, about 4,300 m, with hot springs |
| 2 | Upis over Arapa Pass, past the red and green lakes | Arapa, about 4,850 m | Near Pucacocha, about 4,650 m |
| 3 | The long climb to Palomani, scree and often snow near the top | Palomani, about 5,130 to 5,200 m | Ausangatecocha, about 4,600 m |
| 4 | Over Campa Pass and down to Pacchanta | Campa, about 5,050 m | Pacchanta, about 4,250 m, with hot springs |
| 5 | Pacchanta to Tinki, drive back to Cusco | None | Cusco |
Where the Rainbow Mountain day fits: after the Pucacocha camp the six-day route swings south to camp near Ananta, reaches Vinicunca early the next morning from the back side, and then crosses Palomani to Ausangatecocha. Campers on that route can be on the ridge before the day-tour buses from Cusco arrive, which is the best argument for the extra day.
Ausangate Trek Difficulty: How Hard Is It?
Expect six to seven hours of walking on an average day and more on the Palomani day. The paths are mostly clear herding trails and no climbing skills are needed. Three things make Ausangate hard:
- Altitude, all the time. You sleep every night between about 4,250 and 4,650 m and cross passes at or above 5,000 m. There is no low valley to recover in, unlike Salkantay, which drops into cloud forest on day 2.
- Cold. Nights fall below freezing for most of the dry season, and from June to August parts of the passes can be under snow.
- Remoteness. There is little or no phone signal and no road on most of the loop. Turning back is a decision measured in hours on foot or on horseback.
| Classic Inca Trail | Salkantay trek | Ausangate circuit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days | 4 | 5 | 5 to 6 |
| Distance | 43 km | 74 km | About 67 to 70 km |
| Highest point | 4,215 m, Warmiwañusqa (Dead Woman’s Pass) | 4,650 m, Salkantay Pass | About 5,130 to 5,200 m, Palomani |
| Permit | Yes, limited to 500 people a day including staff | No | No; community fees |
| Ends at Machu Picchu | Yes, through the Sun Gate | Yes, by train and bus | No, back to Tinki |
Who should wait: anyone on their first trek at altitude, and anyone with a heart or lung condition who has not talked to a doctor about sleeping above 4,500 m for four nights. If you are weighing how hard the Inca Trail is by comparison, our Inca Trail difficulty guide goes day by day.
Altitude and Acclimatisation
The CDC’s guidance on high-altitude travel is to raise your sleeping altitude by no more than 500 m a day once you are above 3,000 m, with an extra day for every additional 1,000 m. Cusco sits at about 3,350 m. The first camp at Upis is about 950 m higher, so the trek itself starts faster than that rule allows. The days you spend around Cusco beforehand have to make up the difference.
What we suggest before the first night at Upis:
- At least three to four nights around Cusco, taking the first two quietly.
- One day hike to around 4,200 m and back down to sleep, such as Humantay Lake.
- If you can, a multi-day trek first. Salkantay reaches 4,650 m and then descends, which teaches you how your body copes.
On the treks we run, our guides check every client twice a day with the Lake Louise Score and a pulse oximeter. Ask any Ausangate operator whether their guides do the same, and whether they carry oxygen. A headache that does not settle, vomiting, breathlessness at rest or confusion are reasons to go down, not to push on: the CDC calls descent “urgent and mandatory” in most cases of high-altitude pulmonary edema. Our altitude sickness guide covers symptoms and prevention in Cusco.
Ausangate Trek Map: How the Loop Fits Together
Picture a loop with the mountain in the middle. Tinki sits north of the massif on the road from Cusco. The route heads out to Upis, works around the south side over Arapa and Palomani, and comes back along the north face to Pacchanta, about 8 km north of the main peak, before the last stretch to Tinki.
Our Ausangate trail page has the interactive map, the elevation profile station by station and the starting coordinates. Signposts are rare on the circuit, so anyone walking without a guide should carry a downloaded GPS track and a paper map as well as a phone.
Best Months for the Ausangate Trek
| Months | Conditions |
|---|---|
| May to September | Dry season. Clearest views and the most departures. June to August are the coldest nights, with snow possible on the passes. |
| April and October | Shoulder months. More cloud and some rain, slightly warmer nights, fewer groups. |
| November to March | Wet season, with December to February the wettest. Fresh snow, poor visibility and swollen streams; many operators stop running the circuit. |
Mornings are usually the clearest time on the passes, and weather tends to build after midday, so groups start early. For Cusco-wide patterns month by month, see our Peru weather guide.
Permits and Community Fees
There is no government permit and no daily cap for the Ausangate circuit, so you can book late. Instead, communities along the route charge for entry, camping and their hot springs. Each community sets its own fee and they change, so treat the figures below as reports, not a price list:
| Where | Reported fee per person | When reported |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance on the road out of Tinki towards Upis | S/ 10 | Hikers in 2020 and 2023 |
| Upis hot springs | S/ 5 | 2023 |
| Camping on community land | Free to S/ 15 per tent | 2023 |
| Rainbow Mountain from the trek side | S/ 10 (day visitors from Cusipata pay more) | 2023 |
| Red Valley | S/ 10, sometimes charged on the way in and again on the way out | 2026 |
| Pacchanta hot springs | S/ 5 to 10 | 2023 and 2026 |
Carry S/ 100 to 150 per person in small notes if you walk independently: there are no cash machines on the route and nobody takes cards. Most guided packages pay these fees for you, so ask what yours includes. Rainbow Mountain’s main entrance and its day-visitor rules are covered in our Rainbow Mountain guide.
Getting to Tinki from Cusco
Tinki is three to four hours from Cusco by road, heading southeast through Urcos and Ocongate. Hikers report public buses towards Ocongate and Tinki leaving from near the Coliseo Cerrado in Cusco from about 5:00 am, for S/ 10 to 15 and roughly three hours. Most guided groups use a private transfer, which also solves the return from Tinki or Pacchanta at the end. If you go by bus, arrange your way back before you leave Cusco.
Guided or Independent, and What It Costs
Independently, Ausangate costs little: transport, community fees and food, plus gear hire if you need it. In exchange you carry everything, navigate on sparse signage and have no backup above 5,000 m. It suits people with real experience of camping at altitude.
With a guided team, horses carry the camp, a cook feeds you and someone else watches the weather and your oxygen saturation. Group departures from Cusco agencies are advertised from about US$550 per person for five days; private trips cost more. Whoever you book with, ask these questions first:
- Does the guide carry a pulse oximeter and bottled oxygen, and how often do they check clients?
- What satellite communication device does the team carry, given there is no phone signal?
- Is there a spare horse for someone who cannot walk, and what is the evacuation plan from each camp?
- Are tents and sleeping bags rated for nights below freezing at 4,600 m?
- Which community fees and hot springs are included in the price?
Combining Ausangate with Rainbow Mountain, Humantay and Salkantay
Rainbow Mountain. Vinicunca (5,036 m) sits on the southern flank of the Ausangate massif. You can add it to the circuit as above, or do it as a long day trip from Cusco. Our Rainbow Mountain guide compares the day trip with Palccoyo, and the Vinicunca trail page has its route data.
Humantay Lake. A day hike to 4,200 m, west of Cusco, and a sensible first test before Ausangate. See our Humantay Lake guide.
Salkantay. Salkantay (6,271 m) belongs to a different range, the Cordillera Vilcabamba, on the other side of Cusco. With two weeks in Peru, a good order is Salkantay first, a rest day or two in Cusco, then Ausangate. Our own 5-day Salkantay trek crosses the 4,650 m Salkantay Pass, includes an optional hike to Humantay Lake on day 1 and ends at Machu Picchu. More routes are compared in our Peru trekking guide.
Safety on the Ausangate Trek
- Insurance: buy cover that names trekking to at least 5,200 m and includes evacuation. Check the altitude limit in the policy wording; some policies exclude trekking above a set height.
- Start early: cross the passes in the morning, before afternoon cloud, hail or snow.
- Treat all water: streams run through grazing land, so filter or treat everything.
- Know the way down: from each camp, know which direction loses height fastest and how far the nearest road is.
- Respect the land you cross: pay the fees, ask before photographing people and their homes, and carry out all rubbish.
What to Pack
Pack as for a winter camp. The sleeping bags we rent for the Inca Trail are rated to -5 °C, which is not enough on their own for Ausangate: bring or hire a bag good for well below freezing, or add a liner. Add an insulated jacket for camp, waterproof shell jacket and trousers, warm gloves with liners, a hat that covers your ears, sunglasses with full UV protection, high-factor sunscreen, a headlamp with spare batteries, and two litres of water capacity per day. For the full list, see our Peru trekking packing list.
How We Can Help
Inca Trail Reservations is a Cusco-run trekking operator. We run the Inca Trail and the Salkantay trek on fixed departures. We don’t run Ausangate on a fixed date, and we won’t invent a product for this page.
What we can do is tell you honestly whether Ausangate fits your trip. Email info@incatrailreservations.com with your dates, the treks you have done and the highest altitude you have slept at. We’ll suggest which version of the route fits, how to order your acclimatisation days, and whether combining it with our Salkantay trek makes sense.
About this guide: updated 8 October 2026. Peak heights from published surveys, altitude guidance from the CDC Yellow Book, festival dates from UNESCO, and community fees from dated trekker reports. Fees and transport change; confirm them in Cusco before you set out.