Camping and Aucanquilcha Volcano

Our stroll through the river during our camping trip.

Our "camping" spot for the night as we waited for sunrise. The road was too sketchy to drive at night.

The worst section of the road. Took some shoveling and a few good efforts to get through this part. 

The top of the sulfur mine. I believe this is the highest mine in the world.

The summit!

Well I have a couple updates for you since we last spoke. A few nights ago Sebastian, Eric and I went camping in Toconao. We camped out in the valley where all of the rock climbing is. Twas a beautiful location to watch the sunset and then the moon set and eventually star gaze. The sky out here is definitely the best night sky I've ever seen. I wish I took more pictures but I was too busy enjoying the camping. Then the next day Eric, Kris, Connie and myself rented a car and headed off to Ollagüe to hike the Aucanquilcha Volcano. At 20,262 feet, it would by far be the highest hike I've ever done. By 4 AM we arrived at the start of the mining road and setup camp, which meant laying our sleeping bags on the ground and sleeping till sunrise. Once we had light, we made the treacherous hour drive over the worst road I've ever seen to get to the start of the hike. Only got stuck a couple of times and miraculously didn't break the car. The hike to the top took about 4 hours and was definitely the hardest hike I've ever done. At 20,000 feet, every single step is an exhausting effort. We finally made it to the top and essentially ran back down since we had to return the rental car by 9 PM. With pounding headaches and exhausted bodies we celebrated our victory. Beating Denali by about 8 meters, it was higher than anything in North America. Pretty excited about that. That night I slept better than I've slept in a very long time.