Colombia Caribbean to Glacier

Get your Indi­ana Jones game on for this mag­i­cal adven­ture climb and trek in north­west­ern Colombia’s Sier­ra Neva­da de San­ta Mar­ta, where you’ll find what’s con­sid­ered the coun­try’s high­est peak — Neva­do Colon, and a lit­tle-trav­eled par­adise in which to trek and climb. Your adven­ture begins in trop­i­cal forests, sur­round­ed by pre-Colom­bian ruins; and in a mere 26 miles / 42 kilo­me­ters from the sea, the glac­i­er heights of the peaks are reached, mak­ing the moun­tains here the 5^th most promi­nent in terms of its ele­va­tion rel­a­tive to the sur­round­ing terrain. 

After vis­it­ing with the gra­cious Kogi peo­ple, who per­mit us access to their land and the sacred grounds of the high peaks, we dive in the the rich trop­i­cal forests and what is con­sid­ered one of the most bio­log­i­cal­ly diverse places on the plan­et. As we emerge from the forests we ascend to our base­camp amidst the azure lakes and glac­i­ers of the alpine zone. From there we ascend the glac­i­ers of Pico Sim­mond, the coun­try’s sec­ond high­est peak at 18,618 ft / 5675 m, and quite pos­si­bly the coun­try’s high­est peak giv­en the often dis­put­ed and con­flict­ing ele­va­tions assigned to the peaks.

This trip has a trek or climb option to accom­mo­date var­i­ous skill and fit­ness lev­els, so bring your cram­pons or leave them at home; either way, you’re in for an amaz­ing adven­ture in this wild place. And if this is not enough, it’s pos­si­ble to con­clude the adven­ture with a vis­it to the bustling Caribbean port of San­ta Mar­ta and include a stay in some upscale bun­ga­lows at Tay­rona Nation­al Park, where uncrowd­ed, white sand beach­es and excep­tion­al seafood are the per­fect finale to one of Moun­tain Mad­ness’ most intrigu­ing and diverse trips.