Maybe the most beautiful landscape I have seen in my lifeBenoit, SwitzerlandMany thanks to Gonzalo, our guide
There is a legend about this volcano. Lascar is a father of two other volcanos, which are close by, namely Licancabur and Juriqes. Licancabur and Jeriqes fell in love with a girl Kimai. Licancabur was an angry guy like Cain and he chopped of the head of his own brother. Close to Licancabur you will see another shorter volcano with a large orator, which is not active. Father Lascar did not want to have a war in his family and he sent Kimai away. Kimai is also a mountain but not in the Andes range. Kimai is a highest mountain in Domeyko mountain range, which is in front of Licancabur and Juriqes :)
This tour was just the best tour we did in atacama. We booked it in the agency cumbre6000 with rosanna. She was so nice and helpful. Our tour guide was fabricio xavier. We stopped in the morning at a lagune. We had breakfast there and were watching the flamingos. The patricio walked up with us to the volcano very slowly with lots of breaks. We needed nearls 3 hours to go up and the view was just amazing. Best tour we did. Not touristic at all. Thanks rosanna and patricio for this wonderful day!
We booked our climb with the agency Vulcano Aventura from San Pedro, which organises ascensions to all major volcanoes from the region. The young lady from the agency called Nicole gave us professional, intelligent, patient and accurate advice. The agency provided us with an experienced (has been working since 10years) and English spoken guide called David Dominguez, which we warmly recommend. We were a nice group of 4. It is not a tricky climb, yet the altitude is the challenge (the summit is at 5600m). The views from the top over the altiplano until Argentina are marvellous. If you do not know how to organise your climb - as we did - then go for this agency and this guide.
I booked this through one of the travel agents on the high street (the one directly opposite hostal international). They recommended the flamenco tour the day before to acclimatise, I would say this is not enough as there is no physical exertion on the flamenco tour...! I completed the volcano summit ok, but really felt the affects of the altitude. The guide, David was good and explained things very well. The views at the top are truly amazing and it's worth the effort to get to the top. I would recommend some bike rides a couple of days before to help acclimatise and give yourself the best chance of summiting.
I'd a great hike up this volcano, well worth the effortBooked with Vulcano Expeditions in town, very professional and all equipment provided. Guide didn't have great english, but it didn't matter
A really nice day hike for a 5,550 masl summit!! If you wanna try an above-5000 peak in a the desert climate, go for this one! I went there with Atacama Mistica, got a pretty nice price (80,000 CPS) and a reaaally responsible guide. The only thing that dissapointing was my guide didn't speak English quite balanced since the other 3 people in my group speaks Porto. If you book through agency, one of the thing that you should realize is that you'll adjust your pace with the rest of your group (means if you're quick, probably there'll be waiting), and there's only 1 guide instead of 2, so if one person in your group was really sick cannot complete the summit, there's always a possibility that the guide will refuse to complete the summit for the whole group. I was lucky with our group because we were about the same pace and all the girls have really cool mentality. The trek to the crater took 2.5-3 hrs and another 30-45 min from the crater to the peak. View along the road were amazing. Although I didn't feel any acclimatization problems during the hike, I was miserable upon reaching our car and went back to the city. Anticipate the accumulation of sun heat plus the wind plus motion sickness caused by the bad road when making your way back to the city.
Wow what an amazing experience. It's a climb of 4 hours and with the attitude not easy but believe me it's worth it!We had breakfast at the foot of the volcano and then the climb start. The guides where very patience. You walk to the crater at 5500m it's amazing! The volcano is still active so you see the smoke. I'll definitely recommend this trip if you love challenges!
First of all, this is a significant elevation with a summit at 18,000+ feet, so I HIGHLY recommend not attempting this unless you have been at elevation before (and spend a few days before acclimatizing in the area) because the extremely dry air makes dehydration set in quickly. But that said, if you can handle the elevation, this volcano is definitely worth climbing because the view at the top is amazing. Take a down jacket because it's extremely cold if the wind picks up, and take plenty of water! It's active, so there is sulphur in the air, so be cautious as well. We spent about 20 minutes at the summit. The climb is not technical, but it's challenging and being in shape is a necessity to do this safely.
We did this tour as private tour with the guide Felipe Staig. This guys did a great job providing equipment and pace for elevation. Good English knowledge is also a bonus on a long drive from SPA :)It's really fantastic place. We've never been to active volcano, well frankly speaking ANY volcano and we did it going to the crater and to the nearest summit. The views, and whole impression is "OH MY GOD!""I saw Orordruin!", "#%%#! It's still working!".I just can't express all that. The views from up there are amazing!IMPORTANT!!! FOR NON-PROFESSIONAL CLIMBERS!!! Attitude 5500 is not a joke! Prepare yourself for it before going there, go to a couple of tours above 4000 at least. We had the private tour. We - married couple and one guy from Germany, who didn't do the preparation. He felt really bad after getting to the crater and had to leave back almost immediately. Even that elevation itself is 500 meters only, it's from 5000 to 5500!!! Attitude sickness can destroy your journey!!