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Cerro Pissis (6795 m) 15-day guided ascent in Catamarca

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Hernán, an AAGM mountain guide, has an incredible 15-day ascent to Cerro Pissis (6795) to offer you. Venture into the extreme dryness of the desert!

Not specified

Andes

15 Days

Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec

Fit

Intermediate


Description

Cerro Pissis is an inactive stratovolcano embellishing the Andes range, sitting between La Rioja and Catamarca provinces in Argentina. With its 6795 m is the third highest volcano in the Southern and Western hemispheres and one of the highest in the world.

The wonderful landscapes around are volcanic, with multi-color lava, a few lagoons and a general extreme dryness. The flora is almost none, but its fauna is pretty diverse: vicuñas, guanacos, donkeys, flamingos, condors and many other bird species.

I invite you to admire all that from a height of 6795 m, which we can reach in 15 exciting days. We will begin in Mendoza and travel to Catamarca, where our real adventure will start. It will take us 15 days ascending and descending, and 14 nights camping in the most breathtaking desert landscape.

If you want to spend two weeks in a remote place while ascending an incredible volcano, please sign up. The only pre-requisite to join is to be in good physical condition and to have some experience in mountaineering.

I also offer a 15-day mountaineering program to the highest active volcano in the world: Ojos del Salado (6803m).

Price includes

- Guiding fee

- Accommodation included

- Transportation start and back

- Transport during the trip

- Breakfast

- Lunch

- Dinner

Price details

The price includes guide's assistant.


Details

Accommodation

In tents

More info

You need to wear and bring adequate clothing: Sportswear, feather jacket, insulated jacket (goretex or ultrex type), waterproof trousers, thermal t-shirt, thermal leggings, leggings, double boots, hat, gloves, sunscreen, sleeping bag, crampons, hiking picket (depending on the hill and the chosen route, sun glasses with UV filter (Clothing for high mountain). In case you don't have any of these elements, we could provide it for you.

Meeting point

in Mendoza, Argentina

About the guide

I love the mountain, and all its sports. It is a place where one can find peace and know in depth. It's my ground wire when I need quiet and silence. I started working as a guide and porter in 2006, I have been working and enjoying the beauty of the mountain for many years.

I am a mountain guide AAGM and UIMLA, founder of Rocamadreaventura, a company dedicated to trekking, climbing in ice / rock, high mountain and skiing. Our company is composed of professional guides in charge of showing people what we love.

Languages

French | English

Certificates

AAGM


What people are saying about Hernan Rios

Deborah Liao

1.00

December, 2019

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.


 

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