Nevado Tres Cruces 6.749 m.s.n.m.

(19J, 0522100; 7002734)

Located at 200 Km. To the East of Copiapó (IIIth Region of Chile, 800 kmtsNorth of Santiago). Its geographical location is in UTM under the title and in pharentesis next to each place. It’s the second altitude in Chile. For getting there you have to go by the Internacional Road to Argentina, that goes through Laguna Santa Rosa, National Park Nevado Tres Cruces, where you can see altiplanic animals and birds, like guanacos, vicuñas and flamencos. We propose this schedule for the climbing.

Day 1.- We meet you before 14:00 hrs. in Copiapó (airport, bus terminal or hotel), or in Caldera and start to Vallecito (0 465485; 7006729) 3.100 m. and at 120 kmts. from Copiapó (2 hours). Vallecito is a little Oasis to the feet of an abandoned mine of semi precious stones, the place is full of “Colas de Zorro”, one of the few food plants that sheeps and goats eat .

There we will camp and we will have a short trekking of1 hour by soft terrain with little stones and no more than 20º. We will have dinner at 20.00 and we will sleep after that.

Day 2.- Breakfast at 08:30 hrs. then we will lay up our camp at 10:00 hrs. And we will start in our vehicles toLaguna Santa Rosa (0482562; 7004644) 3.780 m. and at 154 kmts. from Copiapó. Laguna Santa Rosa is a beautiful place where you can see flamingos (known as “Parinas” in the North of Chile), guanacos, and of course a beautiful lagoon. In this place we will set our camp and we will have lunch at 13:30. At 15:00 hrs, we will have a hike around the lagoon of about one hour, by smooth road,(do not walk near the water for sinking danger). We will have dinner at 20.00 and we will sleep there alter that.

Day 3.- Breakfast at 08:00 and we start at 09:00 to a trekking to Cerro "Siete Hermanos" 4.780 m. (0479813; 7010456). This hike takes about 4 hours up to the summit and by a footpath up to the 4.000. and then by steep and rocky road ( 25º to 35º). The weather is usually sunny and windy and the Tº is between 15ºC and 20ºC . You need Goretex clothes,trekking shoes, sticks, sun protection ( hat, sun creams etc.), marching food provided by our company, 2 water liters by each climber. We will come back to the camp to have lunch about 15.00, we will rest during the afternoon to have dinner at 20.00. sleeping in the camp at 21.00.

Day 4.- Breakfast at 08:30. We will take down our camp to start to the Custom Office in Maricunga. We will get there after a trip of one hour to show there our permission of climbing and passports. Then we will continue to Rio Lama. In Km 207 of the International Road to Argentina, we will take another way to the right and to get the place of our Camp ! at 4.600m. We will have lunch about 14:00 hours. Afternoon you can take a rest to have dinner at 20:00 and sleep at 22:00

Day 5.- Breakfast at 8:00 h. and then we start to the high Camp. This walk is hard, it takes 4 to 5 hours. We go through a gorge that goes West-East and at 5.000m. No water in the road. High Camp is at 5.600m. and from there you can see the pass between Central and South Summits. There we will set our tents. We will have a soft lunch. Rest during the afternoon and dinner at 19:00 and sleeping early because tomorrow is our SUMMIT DAY. The place is rocky and windy. You need: Goretex jacket, plastic shoes, sticks, sun protectors (hat, creams, etc.) and all your warm clothes and sleeping bag for -25Cº, marching food provided by our company, 2 water liters by each climber. Every climber mustcarry their water and unless 1 kg. ofcommon equipment (tents, food, etc).

Day 6.- Breakfast at 05:00 a.m. and then start to our SUMMIT DAY. No roots in this steep place. This walking will take around 8-9 hours up to the summit. In some places you will have 45º-50º of inclination. Here you will find several loose rocks and hard steep places to walk by, but no other risks. In the summit you can see the impressive sight of Salar de Maricunga, Volcán Copiapó, Mt. Pissis, Ojos del Salado and many other beautiful mountains. After some minutes in the summit we will go back to our High Camp, getting there about 19:00. We will have dinner at 20:00 and sleep after that. In this place, night temperatures may go from -20ºC, to -25ºC.

Day 7.- Breakfast at 08:30 and starting down to Camp 1, where our vehicle is. This trip takes about 3-4 hours. There we will take down Camp ! and then we will continue with our vehicle to Custom Office of Maricunga and Laguna Santa Rosa where we will have lunch at 15:00. Afternoon rest, dinner at 20:00 and sleeping at 22:00.

Day 8.- Extra day. If bad weather we can use this day for another summit attempt.

Day 9.- Breakfast at 09.00 taking down our camp and begining our returning to Copiapó at 11.00 hours in our vehicles. At 13:00 we will havesome food in route and we will get to your hotel in Copiapó or Caldera about 17.00 (Hotel Inti in Copiapó, Ramón Freire St. Nº 180, phone 52- 212737 or Hotel Montecarlo in Caldera, Carvallo St. Nº 627, phone 52 315388).

Day 10.- Breakfast at your hotel at 09.00 and during the day transfer to the airport. End of our services.

Personal Equipment needed:

•Matress.

•Back pack of 80 lts.

•Personal cleanliness elements (toothbrush, soap, towel, comb, etc.).

•Sleeping bag for below -25ºC.

•Insurance for personal accidents, equipment loosing, sicknesses, hospital emergencies, extra or incidental expenses, (“Seguro de vida en viaje”), (These insurances are not sold in Chile to people without residence).

For the “Summit Day”:

•1^st, 2^ndand 3^rd layers, ideal feather anorak for -30ºC.

•Gloves 3 layers (insulation, warming and wind stopper).

•Plastic shoes.

•Crampons.

•Termic Bottle (“Thermo”) for unless one liter.

•Sticks or marching axe.

For acclimatization hikes:

•1st y 2nd layers, optional 3rd coat.

•Trekking shoes.

•Resting (or “refuge”) shoes.

•Solar protection , hat, sun creams, UV lenses.

•Sticks or axe.

Equipment supplied by Aventurismo expediciones:

•Camp common equipment: Tables, chairs, dishes, silverware (knife, spoon, fork, tea spoon), glasses for hot and cold drinks, Lamps, dinning tent for 8 to 10 people.

•First Aid box, movil oxigen equipment.

•2 Radios HF (to comunícate withcamps), by every 4 climbers.

•Mountain tents for 2 people , with “duroaluminium” sticks, model Ferrino Stardust, Lafuma Camp2, The North Face VE-25 or similar.

•During camps with vehicle, we use stoves with butangas of 5 kgs.

•During high altitude camps we use small butano-propano stoves 80/20 or 70/30.

•4 WD vehicles 2000 or newer for 4 climbers each. If necessary, we use without 4WD Vans for approaching trips.

•We provide 1 Mountain Guide with experience in the zone by every 4 climbers and camp assistants and conductors or cookers when necessary for more than 4 climbers expeditions.

Food:

Aventurismo expediciones provides breakfast, lunch, dinner and summit food during our expeditions.

Breakfast:: Coffee or tea,cornflakes, long life bread, marmalade, low cream milk, butter, jam, cheese, eggs 2 times during the expe.

Lunch and dinner: spagehtti, soups, rice, cow meat, chicken meat, fresh salads the first days, Canned goods the next days, canned green salads (summit days), canned fish , etc, milk desserts , fresh fruits when possible and then canned fruits. Chilean Wines, coffee , tea or herb water.

Summit food:Chocolates, candies, dryed fruits, peanuts, raisins, almond, isotonic juices, water.

Water:

We recommend to drink unless 3 liters a day by each climber. We supply all the water necessary.

Emergency food:

We suply extra food for 3 more days appart from that of the expedition program.

Hotel and transfer:

We provide the hotel with breakfast and the transfer to the airport at the end of the expedition; You will have your last night in our Region in these hotels: Hotel Inti in Copiapó, Ramón Freire St. Nº 180, phone 52-212737 or in Hotel Montecarlo in Caldera, Carvallo St. Nº 627, phone 52-315388, or similar.

Brief description of AVENTURISMO expediciones:

Maximiliano Martínez Espinoza is the leader of this company, he was an instructor of the National Mountaineering School (ENAM) and he was Patrol Chief of the Mountain Search and Rescue group (CSA), As operating chief is Sebastián Martínez Illanes, Mountain Guide and Mountain Instructor ENAM. By the time Aventurismo Expediciones gives their services to more than 150 mountain climbers every season. Our Guides are bilingual and they are all very good climbers. They are between 25 and 35 being most of them University Proffessionals. Our clients come from all over the world and our enterprise or their owners are very known through climbers handbooks of several countries. We were the first to set in the Atacama Region since 1995. In 2004 we got theconcession of Ojos del Salado Mt. for the next 50 years.

Guide functions

A Mountain Guide is aProffessional of the mountain tourism and the principal chief of the expedition. His aim is to guide the group by the best route and with the best weather conditions to the summit and to the camps again. Personal security of the climbers is one of the most important duties, so his decissions can’t be discussed by any climber. Our programs can be changed in some of their parts and, if necessary, you can talk with the Guide before about it.(i.e.- To change an acclimatization day for a summit day).

Assistants are to serve people and they receive orders only from the guide.

Duties of the expedition members:

To Obey the Guide’s instructions.

To Participate actively in the group in order to get the aims. To have good will and cooperation . To help a partner in dificulties. None may remain alone in the mountain. To Inform the Guide as soon as possible, when a trouble may become a problem.

Amount of climbers by group.

We can give service from 1 (one), up to 20 (twenty) climbers by expedition.

The best number by expedition is 7

The climbing season goes from November to March and the best time is December, January and the begining of March.

Our Prices:

·The price is the same if you get the summit or not. In all cases payment must be done before begining the expedition: 30% to confirm your reservation, and at least with a month in advance, and the balance at the begining of the expe.

·If you can’t participate in an expedition you reserved, you can use that value (30%) for another expedition in another date.

Security and rescue:

In Atacama Región there is a system of rescue in the mountain formed by Carabineros (Polices) and the Army. They decided that any emergency below 4.000m. will be done by Carabineros and above that altitude by the Army Patrols.

Mountains in Atacama Region don’t have rock climbing problems and the principal health problems are related with bad acclimatization and the very low temperatures that sometimes go below the -30ºC.

Most of these problem are related with climbers that climb alone or with guides with poor experience.

Our enterprise has a system of swift evacuation. It consists in to have in every moment a vehicle and its conductor for transport the climber with these problems to a hospital in Copiapó (200 kmts. From Tres Cruces) and 3 to 5 hours of travel. This service has a cost of US$­­200 by trip.

In Copiapó there are hospitals (public and private) that can assist any health problem during the 24 hours.and most of them accept Credit Cards.

No Helicopter services in the Region but the airport has unless 2 flights a day to Santiago.