Acotango — Local services in Putre

The route from the Bolivian side starts at the end of the Sulphur mining road at approx. 5400 m. From there there is a small path towards the inside of the huge old crater. The way is steep and strenuous, especially the middle part, which consists of loose sandy rocks and a quite long way until you reach the snowy/icy part at around 5800m. From there on, another challenge are the "penitentes", icy formations, like small ceracs, which are quite difficult to master, even with crampons. Once you cross that field, then the climb follows the edge of the old crater. The whole route is not technical and can be mastered, provided you have the strength, stamina and correct equipment to move at that high altitude. In any case, you have to have a good and experienced mountain guide at your side! Remember this is a 6000´ plus m high altitude mountain with all its challenges. Is is not a simple hike. Beware of the wind, which can be incredibly strong at times. The views are simply amazing, covering the Lauca National park in Chile, the Sajama National Park in Bolivia, including the far away (200 km away) Cordillera Real mountains,...

Amazing experience! Most of your journey will be spent on sandy path that is in the end pretty steep. Then you will walk on snow/ice which to be honest looked very scary to me. The ridge is quite wide but you can still see big nothing below you. Fortunately everything was fine and our group made it to the top. It took us 5 hours. For all of us it was first visit above 6000 meters and we had basically no experience with mountain climbing prior this trip. We did our acclimatization on Wisalla (5000m) mountain next to Sajama village as it has similar walking elevation (800m). Our guide told us if we can do it, we can do Acotango. His name was Gregorio and he was amazing. He was super patient with our super slow tempo and problems with altitude. You can find him in hostel Parinacota in Sajama. Highly recommended by us. True...

Great volcano that has incredible views over Sajama national park (including Sajama volcano, Parinacota, and Pomerape) and into Chile. The trek to the top (6052m) is a beautiful - probably the “easiest” 6000m peak in Bolivia, but still not easy and requires good fitness and acclimatisation. Much of the journey (mid July) was over snow and required at the very least crampons - worth going with someone with some experience/guide. The trail starts from a dirt car road that is approximately 1.5hr from Sajama town, and is fairly rough, so at least a high clearance vehicle and ideally 4WD. The distance is about 3.4km and takes 3-6hrs to ascend depending on...