Vambola Sipelgas
5.00
March, 2009
13-day Ojos del Salado volcano ascent
Many thanks to You again for excellent organization our trip to Ojos with Martin Torres! Martin very good man and I`m very glad to have this new real friend!
Jerry Bierbower
5.00
February, 2026
14-Day Ojos del Salado (6898m) ascent with acclimatization
You People there at Explore have really put a great trip together. I don,t know how you could improve on this. Thanks forgiving me the chance to experience Chile!
Deborah Liao
5.00
December, 2028
Ojos del Salado (6893m) 15-day mountaineering program, Catamarca
This review was for a guide (Gaston Lopez) sent by Hernan. This was the worst guiding I've experienced on any trip taken over the last 8 years on over a dozen trips around the world. Numerous issues that you would not expect from a guide who's been certified for 12+ years. The most significant being: suggested I could wear normal hiking boots on a 6016 meter mountain (Nevado San Francisco) when I've always worn doubles on 6000 and even on cold 5000 meter mountains. An inexperienced person could have had foot issues/frost bite as it was cold the day we summited. Not knowing the route on Ojos - he suggested we try for the summit at 13:30 after moving from Arenal to the higher camp, but couldn't provide an answer when I asked what the average time was for people to summit when leaving from the high camp. We eventually had to turn around from this summit attempt because he seriously misjudged the timing and lost the route during our ascent. After this failed attempt, he said we'd make another attempt the following morning and that it would take maybe 7 hours up and 5 hours down, meaning we'd need to leave by 8:00 at the absolute latest to make it back before dark. The next morning he was still sleeping at 7:00, and hadn't mentioned anything about departure time the night before, so I left before him and led myself up to the plateau before he caught up and we went the rest of the way together. By this point I had lost all confidence in his guiding ability, advice, and planning, so I made the decision to leave on my own for the summit because I knew he wasn't leaving me enough time by sleeping in. Other issues: every time this guide verbalized the itinerary, it was different (he was clearly very disorganized and lacked basic planning skills); this was the worst and cheapest food I've experienced on any trip. Example: after an 11-hour summit day, we had canned lentils, canned vegetables, rice, tuna, and tomatoes mixed together for dinner vs. other teams that ate grilled meat, stir fry, hamburgers, tacos, etc. There was also inadequate/low quality breakfast of cookies and cereal only, as opposed to other teams eating eggs, toast with jam & peanut butter, bread/chapati, etc.; of all the guided teams at Las Grutas, we didn't have paperwork for the car to get past the gendarmie post so we had to get a ride from someone else to Nevado (shows poor planning and logistics); pacing was not great and he was so far ahead of me most of the time that he had no idea what my pace was, not to mention this is a dangerous practice in terms of keeping an eye on your client; guide had no hand sanitizer and didn't wash hands when preparing food; guide incorrectly told me I was developing HAPE because of a cough I tend to get at altitude but my oxsat was 83% and resting heart rate was ~95 bpm at 5500 meters.
Standing in the southern section of the Central Volcanic Zone in the Andes, the high rising Ojos del Salado even towers above a neighbouring collection of 6,000-meter peaks. At 6,893 meters, the stratovolcano is the world’s highest active volcano, as well as being the second highest mountain in both the Western and Southern Hemisphere, peaked only slightly by Aconcagua (6,961 meters).
Language
Spanish
Country code
+54 in Argentina and +56 in Chile
Currency
Argentinian peso (ARS) and Chilean peso (CLP)
Best time to visit
Visit during the milder months between October and March for ideal climbing conditions
What's the weather like?
The region of the Ojos del Salado receive a dry climate during the summer months, which is due to its location in the Atacama dessert and the Andes
The stratovolcano of Ojos del Salado hangs extremely high on the South American border between Argentina and Chile. At 6,893 meters above sea level, it is the highest active volcano on Earth, as well as being the second highest mountain in both the Western and Southern Hemisphere. The Andean giant of Aconcagua (6,961m), the highest mountain, stands just 370 miles away. The translation of the stratovolcano is The Eyes of the Salty One, due to its large deposits of salt in lagoons and glaciers
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