Introduction

Volcán Ojos del salado rises in the middle of a spectacular "mountain museum", in an extraordinarily remote and hard to access area. Here, the mountains of the Andes rise majestic amid salt flats, sandy desserts, flamingoes and colorful lakes. It is amazing that the snow and glaciers of their summits withstand the desert heat.

Ojos del Salado is located south of the Atacama Desert, in the most arid and deserted sector of the Andes, over a great plain or plateau called the Altiplano.

Belonging to Chile´s Third Region - to the interior of the city of Copiapó - and in the province of Catamarca on the Argentine side, Ojos del Salado achieves to outstand in an area full of six thousand plus meter peaks. Its 6893 meters above sea level give place for a number of records: the highest volcano in the world; the highest mountain in Chile; the second highest mountain of the Andes, following Aconcagua (6959m).

"Ojos" is a Andesitic volcano. According to the age of eruption, the volcano is considered a recent volcano - called a Neovolcano - having had it's principle activity during the Pleistocene and Holocene ages. Actually, it shows a secondary volcanic activity, designated with the generic name "fumarolica." Nevertheless, they've observed sulfactic activity in 1937 and 1956, and more recently in November of 1994, when it produced an intermittent gray column of water vapor and sulfuric gases. This gaseous activity diminished the quantity of available oxygen over 6400 meters.


Climbing permit

To climb this volcano via the Chilean side, both Chilean and foreign mountaineers must ask for permission from the Office of Borders, "Dirección de Fronteras y Límites de Chile" (DIFROL); the requirements for obtaining this permit are published in www.difrol.cl in the "Autorización para Expediciones" section. The permit must be shown at the police post in Laguna Verde. If there were any doubt about this specific matter, we recommend contacting the "Intendencia de Copiapó" (Atacama Region government offices).