Mountainous areas frequently are seen as barriers to human mobility due to highly rugose terrain, patchy environments, and other factors that presumably discourage movement. However, preferential pathways or corridors develop due to anisotropy in these factors, creating conduits for human movement. Here, we present a new geospatial framework for modeling human mobility in the north – central Andes (approximately 8 ° N – 30 ° S latitudes), which leverages energetic and pheric distance (or distance measured as travel time) models. We apply this model to two case studies. The first examines how movement between specific resource locations and early Initial Period politically- and religiously-important centers throughout central – northern Peru contributed to the emergence cultural networks in the subsequent Formative period, especially the Chavin phenomenon. The second models migration routes related to the peopling of the high Andes. These cases show that this modeling approach has both explanatory power as well as predictive potential.