12-day guided expedition to San José volcano

We’ll pick you up at the airport in Santiago and take you to your hotel. In the evening we’ll meet and do a gear check.

We’ll leave early in the morning for a two-hour drive to Lo Valdés. We’ll drop off our stuff at the hut, have lunch and then go for a short walk in the surrounding areas to start our acclimatization process.

Early drive up to a road junction from where we’ll start hiking. It’s a 5 hours hike to the small Plantá hut, which will serve as our San José base camp. Today, we’ll use horses to transport the heavy load. We set up camp, hydrate, rest and have dinner.

We’ll use this day as an acclimatization day, which means that we’ll go on a four-hour trek in the surrounding areas. Back at the camp, we’ll enjoy a cup of tea, get some rest and have dinner.

We’ll hike for 6 hours to our next camp. Each participant will carry his personal equipment in his backpack, while the common gear (such as food and tents) will be transported by porters.

We’ll keep moving up to Camp II, our last camp at 5100 m. This takes about 5 to 6 hours again, first on steeper terrain and then on a long, gentle ascent. Again, upon arrival we’ll set up camp and melt snow to make water. Rest and prepare for the summit day.

The summit day is a round trip of about 6 to 7 hours. We’ll leave our camp at about 7-8am, depending on the conditions and the wind. The last 100 meters consist of lava debris, a bit hard to climb up but very easy to slide down.  After a while we go back down to Camp II.

Hike down to Plantá where we’ll find all the comfort of our base camp, including a delicious meal prepared by our cook.

Reserve day. Day of margin in case of bad weather.

We’ll walk back to the cars and then drive down passing Lo Valdés. We have lunch on the way and keep driving down to Santiago. Transfer to the hotel.

Transfer to the airport and back home.