Salkantay Is the highest peak of the Vilcabamba mountain range, part of the Peruvian Andes. It is located in the Cusco Region.

1. SALKANTAY MOUNTAIN “the savage mountain”
Salcantay or Salkantay Sallqantay in Quechua, The name is from sallqa, a
Quechua word meaning wild, uncivilized, savage, or invincible, and was
recorded as early as 1583. The name is thus often translated as "Savage
Mountain".
Salkantay Is the highest peak of the Vilcabamba mountain range, part of the
Peruvian Andes. It is located in the Cusco Region, about 60 km (40 mi) west-
northwest of the city of Cusco. It is the 38th highest peak in the Andes, and
the twelfth highest in Peru. However, as a range highpoint in deeply incised
terrain, it is the second most topographically prominent peak in the country,
after Huascarán.
Salcantay is considered to be the brother of Ausangate, a high peak east of
Cusco, and the two are thought to be equally powerful and the fathers of all the
other mountains.
Directly to the north of Salkantay lies Machu Picchu, which is at the end of a
ridge that extends down from this mountain. Viewed from Machu Picchu's main
sundial, the Southern Cross is above Salkantay's summit when at its highest
point in the sky during the rainy season. The Incas associated this alignment
with concepts of rain and fertility, and considered Salkantay to be one of the
principal deities controlling weather and fertility in the region west of Cuzco.

2. Salkantay Overview and Mountaineering History
Salcantay is a large, steep peak with great vertical relief, particularly above the
low valleys to the north, which are tributaries of the Amazon River.
Salcantay was first climbed in 1952 by a French-American expedition
comprising Fred D. Ayres, David Michael, Jr., John C. Oberlin, W. V. Graham
Matthews, Austen F. Riggs, George I. Bell, Claude Kogan, M. Bernard Pierre,
and Jean Guillemin. All except Oberlin, Riggs, and Guillemin made the
summit.Two years later Fritz Kasparek fell through a cornice near the summit
on the NE ridge.
On June 17, 2013 Nathan Heald(USA), Thomas Ryan(USA), and Luis
Crispin(Peru) made the summit at 10:30am after 9 hours of climbing from a
high camp at 5,500mts. on the NE ridge. This makes Crispin the first Peruvian
climber to summit the mountain. The team took a reading of 6,279mts., S 13°
20.027’, W 72° 32.596’, on a GPS device.On July 31st, 2013 a second team led
by Nathan Heald(USA), consisting of James Lissy(USA) and Edwin Espinoza
Sotelo(Peru)make the summit by the NE ridge. Due to glacial retreat, the route
is now calculated to be graded D on the French adjectival scale. This makes
Heald the only person to have summited the mountain twice.