Ascent to Licancabur Volcano

Day of ascent to Licancabur usually begins with wake-up at about two o'clock in the morning in the hostel over Laguna Blanca. For breakfast is usually served maté de coca + cacti broth for easier overcoming of altitude. Then follows about 11 kilometers long jeep ride around both lagoons Blanca and Verde to the road leading to the pass between Licancabur and Juriques. Jeep ends its journey in front of a small cleft at a height of 4,628 meters above sea level, so there are still 1300 altitude meters to the top. Around 3:30 begins the ascent itself along relatively well-beaten path without technical passages. The way in the dark passes well, it is slowly starting to dawn and there are views of the surrounding volcanoes and lagoons. The first lights up neighboring volcano Sairecabur, which is „small“ peak towering above ancient gigantic caldera. It may not look so, but this peak is a few meters higher than Licancabur.

Later on begins to open a beautiful view of the surrounding volcanic world.

The standard time for the ascent is about 5 hours, which can be very easily managed. From the top, already at a daylight, you can clearly see the whole massif of Sairecabur together with „smugglers“ path connecting Chile with Bolivia and jeep road leading from Chile up to the caldera of the volcano and further into the pass below the peak up to a height of 5,750 meters above sea level – so the ascent itself would not need to be very difficult :-)

Laguna Verde gets its classic color with the rising sun. From the top you can see the far on the horizon also the highest mountain in the whole area – Volcano Uturuncu. Quite interesting are views of the clouds of dust rising from the jeeps that set off so early in the morning from Laguna Verde to the landscape Salvator Dali.

The lake in the crater of Licancabur (5 916 m above sea level) is considered as one of the highest in the world at all and can be only rarely seen unfrozen.

Right next is another interesting volcano with "shoot-off“peak – Juriques volcano ( 5704 m asl). Were it not for the explosion, it would probably be much higher than Licancabur. Not it is in its significant shadow.

Descend through scree glen is very fast. It takes only about an hour before tourist „runs down“ back to the jeep. But even so, you must be very careful, especially during south american winter, when there are snow fields and icy cairns. Because even here there have been fatalities.