Climbing Nevado Ojos del Salado in Chile, the world's highest volcano скачать в хорошем качестве

Climbing Nevado Ojos del Salado in Chile, the world's highest volcano

We took on the challenge of climbing Nevado Ojos del Salado in late 2025. Ojos del Salado is the world's highest volcano at 6,893 meters (22,615 feet) above sea level. It's also the highest point in Chile and the second-highest point in Western Hemisphere behind Argentina's Aconcagua, which is 6,962 meters high. Ojos del Salado is located on the Chile/Argentina border in the Atacama Desert, the world's driest non-polar desert. We used All Mountain as our guiding company and we highly recommend them. They let us customize a 13-day itinerary (although we completed it two days earlier than originally planned due to good weather and their flexibility to go up as soon as we were ready). Our guides, Balthazar, Seba, and Vanessa, and our cooks, Charlie, Irma, and Evelyn were all outstanding. Starting from Copiapó, a mining town an hour from the Pacific Ocean, we embarked on the journey with a 2-3 hour drive to Laguna Santa Rosa, where we spent four nights in a very nice, private refugio. Staying at Laguna Santa Rosa allowed us to ease into the acclimatizing as there are a number of four and five-thousand-meter peaks nearby, and the camp itself is well over 3,000 meters. We turned around shortly before the summit on Cerro Siete Hermanas on what was scheduled to be a rest day, but successfully summited Cerro Pastillitos (5,073 meters) the following day. Around Laguna Santa Rosa, we saw lots of wildlife--well, as much wildlife as can be expected in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The laguna was full of flamingos and other birds, and guanacos frequented the area as well. After our fourth night there, we hit the road for a 1.5-hour drive to Laguna Verde, our base camp for Ojos. Along the way we stopped at a waterfall, which was a surprising site as there is very little freshwater in the area. We learned the river mostly flows underground and comes from melting glaciers and thermal springs on nearby the nearby Tres Cruces massif. Laguna Verde is one of the most stunning bodies of water I've ever seen with its green/turquoise color. Like Laguna Santa Rosa, Laguna Verde is a hypersaline lake and also contains high levels of lithium. It also has a number of hot springs that were near our campsite. There was not a lot of wildlife around the lake, though a few birds, including some flamingos. We also saw several vicuñas in the area. Laguna Verde, at 4,200 meters above sea level, provided an excellent base camp for us to complete the acclimatizing process by ascending nearby peaks above five and six thousand meters, while letting us sleep at a lower elevation. From camp, we hiked up to the north ridge of Cerro Mulas Muertas, a 5,700-meter peak. We also ascended Cerro de San Francisco, about an hour's drive, and our first 6000er of the trip. We summited Ojos del Salado on the 10th day of our journey. Sleeping at base camp, our guides drove us up the extremely rough, 4x4 road to the trailhead at 5,900 meters. From there, it was a steep, but easy ascent up a mix of sand and scree. Once we reached the crater below the summit, we climbed up a talus field and then a class 4 section to reach the top. Climbing and hiking at nearly 7,000 meters is exhausting, but we were rewarded with a panorama of the area. A short walk down the other side of the summit led us to an overview of fumaroles, reminding us that Ojos is an active volcano. The descent was quick and easy down the sand and back to our 4Runner. After resting a day following Ojos, we hiked up its neighbor Cerro El Muerto, which stands a 6,502 meters above sea level. Unlike Ojos del Salado, El Muerto is rarely climbed. We believe we were only the third group on it this season. I will share a video from this ascent in the coming days. After El Muerto and returning back to civilization, All Mountain treated us to a seaside dinner and some beach time at Bahía Inglesa, about an hour's drive from Copiapó.