Cumbre on Doña Ines!

The first acclimatization hike is done and the team is preparing to ring in the New Year! On New Year’s Eve, the Madison Mountaineering team set off on their first acclimatization hike to prepare for climbs of Ojos del Salado and Aconcagua. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester called in from a windy summit before their descent, filled with excitement after a successful climb up to over 5,070 meters and for a fun evening celebrating the New Year ahead:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ojos del Salado (6893m/22,615ft) and Aconcagua (6961m/22,837ft) combo – today is December 31st, New Year’s Eve!

We are on top of Volcano Doña Ines (5075m/16,650ft) right now. We just had a fantastic ascent and made good time up here. It’s our first acclimatization ascent of this trip. This summit is about 5,070 meters. We didn’t expect to have any cell service until we get back to Copiapó, but it turns out there’s a little bit of reception up here so I’m sending in a dispatch from here.

In just a minute we will take an hour and a half or two hours to descend back to our pickup truck, and then we’ll drive back to our camp on the outskirts of the Pedernales Salt Flat where we’ll relax and then have a nice New Year’s Eve dinner with some champagne to ring in 2024!

All is well here in Chile and we’ll be in touch!

Blue skies over the Atacama Desert on New Years Eve!

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