July 1, 2005 ^- Happy Canada Day from the Summit of Sajama (21,464 ft / 6542 m)

Happy Canada Day and on this Friday everyone in the US best wishes going into the Fourth of July weekend.  I am calling you from the top of Sajama and I’ll tell you this is truly one of the greatest mountains in the Southern Hemisphere.  I am happy to report to you that the entire Berg Adventures climbing team, Shawna, Scott, Bob, Michael, John, myself as well as Oswaldo and Juancho are up here on the summit.                    

This mountain is famous for its wind and we have some wind up here but it is also a massive expanse of white.  I came up behind the two roped teams and photographed them and it looked like for all the world a polar landscape except when you look across the Chilean frontier landscape in every direction because this mountain stands on it’s own.  You can see the brown high plains of the altiplano spotted with a few lakes and smaller volcanoes.  This is truly a beautiful mountain and we have had it to ourselves.

I think this mountain rivals Aconcagua and Ojos in terms of scale, of course it is not quite as high but it stands alone and is very unique.  One of the things we have here that we don’t have on Aconcagua is the mountain to ourselves.  It does remind me of Ojos looking out at the brown expanse of the high desert.

We are very proud and please to be here.  We are thinking of everyone back home, Bob sends birthday wishes to his son Blake and I could go on and on with the best wishes for back home.  Know that as we descend we will be going through high camp and then all the way to base camp.  We have radio contact with high camp and with Leila and Juan Carlos at base camp and with Jorje all the way back in the village of Sajama.

By the time we get back down to base camp with Leila and Juan Carlos it is going to seem like a long day but we will call in when we get down there to let you know how we did.