Yerupajá, Mountain summit in Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru

Yerupajá is a mountain summit in the Cordillera Huayhuash, reaching an elevation of 6,634 meters (21,765 feet). It stands as the second-highest peak in Peru and the highest point of the Huayhuash range.

Jim Maxwell and Dave Harrah completed the first successful ascent in 1950, opening the way for mountaineering on this peak. Since then, climbers from around the world have pursued expeditions along its technically demanding routes.

The name Yerupajá comes from Quechua: yuraq (white) and pajaj (dawn), giving "white dawn"; another reading derives it from yuriy (to appear) and paqsa (moonlight), "appears like moonlight." The peak marks the junction of Áncash, Huánuco and Lima departments, and its western face is seen from Chiquián as an axe blade splitting the sky.

Approaches normally start from Huaraz, heading south via Chiquián and on to Jahuacocha, the base used before the climb. The southwest face is the most popular route, but only a few ascents succeed because the peak is among the hardest in the Andes.

The summit is the highest point of the Amazon River watershed, and its topographic isolation is 148.8 km, with Huascarán Sur as parent peak. The northern peak, Yerupajá Norte, was first climbed in 1968 by Roger Bates and Graeme Dingle. In 1969 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climbed the East Face.