Today the group will fly from Santiago to the small city of Copiapo (390 m/1,280 ft.). We will do a gear check and have an evening discussion about the science and climbing ahead, including some equipment demos. Overnight in a local hotel.

We will drive from the city of Copiapo to Valle Chico (3000 m/9,843 ft.) today and start our acclimatization process. In the evening, we’ll chat about Earth and Mars while camping under the beautiful southern sky in this arid alien landscape.

We will ‘rove’ along the Atacama desert today, stopping a few times to measure soil and rock properties and collect samples for  laboratory investigation. Try your hand at rock and mineral identification using standard geology tools like a rock hammer, hand lens (magnifying glass), and mineral guide sheet. Then, validate your guesses using a handheld portable spectrometer built specifically to identify primary and secondary (alteration) minerals in rocks.

We will wrap up our work in the desert today and head to the Laguna Santa Rosa (3700 m/12,139 ft.) in Nevado Tres Cruces National Park. If we’re lucky, we’ll spot some flamingos and vicuñas!

Today we’ll do an acclimatization trek in Salar de Maricunga, nearby to Laguna Santa Rosa. On the science side, we will do some water sampling and measurements in the lake, investigating pH, heavy metals presence, and bacteria.

We’ll make our way over to the gorgeous Laguna Verde (4350 m/14,272 ft.) for continued acclimatization and science exploration today. We will be able to compare what we find here (pH, heavy metals, and bacteria) with results from Laguna Santa Rosa. To continue with our acclimatization, we will attempt to go up as far as we can on Mulas Muertas (5,897 m/19,347 ft.)

Today we will drive to our base camp at Atacama Refuge (5255 m/17,240 ft.), crossing beautiful sand flats and steep rocky slopes of surrounding mountains. The rest of the day will be spent resting and repacking for a gear drop tomorrow at Camp 1.

Today we will carry and cache some of our gear on an acclimatization hike to 5825 m/19,110 ft. at the Tejos Refuge (Camp 1). On the way back, we’ll collect any interesting rocks we find, to study with our portable spectrometer at base camp.

Today is a mandatory rest day at base camp before we attempt the summit. We’ll spend part of the day working on science, studying our rocks and soils collected from the stretch of trail from base camp to Camp 1.

Today we make the hike back up to Tejos Refuge (5825 m/19,110 ft.), carrying the rest of our gear up to our cache. We’ll go to sleep early, given an early rise in the morning for our summit attempt.

Today is the day! Depending on the cold and wind, we’ll get up between 3-5 AM and climb our way to the summit of the world’s highest active volcano. This is easy scrambling/climbing with the last short section before the summit requiring harness and fixed rope. We’ll take photos, measurements and samples of rocks and soils from the summit and as we descend back to Camp 1.

Today is reserved as an extra day for weather. Else, we will head back to Copiapo on this day (6-8 hours driving).

We’ll spend the day resting in Copiapo or driving back from Ojos Del Salado base camp.

Today we’ll fly back to Santiago, have a celebratory group dinner, overnight in a hotel, and prepare for international departure. Please do not book outbound flights any sooner than today.