Ojos del Salado 15th Dec 17

Ojos del Salado Expedition

Departed 15th December 2017

Leader: Carrie Gibson

31st December

Carrie messaged today to say that the Ojos del Salado team have moved to Argentina for their ascent of Aconcagua. Today they sorted their permits and did the shopping for the trip before heading up to Penitentes.

Chile was fantastic! It’s great to see these shots of the summit of Ojos.

28th December

Success for the first Adventure Peaks Ojos team this season. Carrie phoned in today to say that Ailsa, Jamie, Mary & Andreas reached the summit. Carrie stayed with Maria & Robert who had decided to stop at the crater rim at 6650m. Du remained at High Camp with Jeff. All the team are now back down at base camp celebrating their achievements.

25th December

Carrie called briefly today to wish everyone a Merry Christmas on behalf of the team…and to also get a weather forecast for the next few days. They are still on course for making their summit bid on Ojos del Salado on the 28th December.

23rd December

Andreas reached the summit of Volcan Copiapo along with Jamie & Mary. They were followed up by Ailsa, Roberto and Maria with Carrie. Du got to the respectable height of 5850m with Jeff before deciding to head back down. All the team are now celebrating a great day with a BBQ at camp.

22nd December

Carrie called from Laguna del Negro Francisco. The team are all well and in good spirits. Yesterday they climbed Cerro Pastillitos which is just under 5100m. Tomorrow they will make an ascent of Volcan Copiapo, which is just over 6050m. After their ascent they will then move over to the Atcama refuge on Ojos on Sunday. They will then spend some time acclimatising in readiness for their planned summit bid of Ojos del Salado on 28th December. So far the weather is looking favorable for that plan.

20th December

Today the team climbed Cerro Siete Hermans peak; the morning started as a lovely warm summers day, however the winds picked up in the afternoon. They are camped at the beautiful Laguna Santa Rosa where they can see flocks of Flamingos feeding in the lake. Yesterday’s acclimatisation walk took them to the top of a subsidiary peak where they were greeted by three Guanacos at the top of the hill.

18th December

Our first Ojos del Salado group of the season have all arrived safely in Copiapo, unfortuntately not all of the bags have, so having tracked down all but one, we took Du on a shopping spree to kit him out for the expedition. All my shopping experience has come in handy after all! This is Du after receiving the personal shopping assistant service.

Having extended our stay in Copiapo by a couple of days, we have now loaded up vehicles and set off towards the Altiplano to begin our acclimatisation from Vallecito.