Acclimatizing in the Atacama Desert

The team continued on to El Salvador today, after the expedition got underway in Copiapó! El Salvador serves as a great place to continue the acclimatization process as the team prepares for their ascent of the tallest volcano on the planet, Ojos del Salado. Here’s expedition leader, Terray Sylvester with todays dispatch from the Atacama Desert:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ojos del Salado (6893m/22,615ft) expedition! It’s December 9th.

Today we packed up our vehicles and drove from Copiapó (390m/1,280ft) to the little mining town of El Salvador, out here in the Atacama Desert. El Salvador is at about 2,200 meters, so we’ll spend the night here before we drive up to our first campsite on the Pedernales Salt Flats tomorrow. This is a good spot to start the acclimatization process for Ojos del Salado which is almost 7,000 meters tall.

So, all is well here and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

Our Ojos del Salado climbers in the town of El Salvador!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s