June 30 - Sajama Base Camp to High Camp

It’s the 30th of June and I’m calling you from over 16,000 ft (4876 m) on the side of Sajama.  I’m looking far down now at our base camp.  We walked out of the village of Sajama yesterday along a flat, gradually ascending road at elevations over 14,000 ft (4267 m) and we walked all the way up and established this base camp.  We had burros follow us to help bring our big cook tent and full supplies as this will be at least a three day camp for the Berg Adventures team.  Leila and Juan Carlos are holding that camp down for us.

Our summit team has left for high camp and a very early morning start tomorrow to try and ascend to the top of Sajama on Canada Day, July 1st.   Michael, Shawna, Scott, Bob and John are ahead of me.  Juancho and Oswaldo are with them and I’ll slowly try to catch up with them as we work our way up to high camp.  We plan to arrive at 3:00 or 4:00 this afternoon.  Domingo and Charlie who are cooking for us will serve us a simple dinner in our tents and we’ll try to fall asleep in the afternoon for a 1:00am wake up call tomorrow morning.  We should be climbing at 3:00am and with luck we’ll call you from the top of Sajama the next time you hear from us on Canada Day.  We’ll certainly give you news from the top or along the way.