Nevado Sajama is the highest peak in Bolivia and the country’s highest volcano.
The dormant stratovolcano rises to 6,542 metres in western Bolivia, near the Chilean border. It stands within Sajama National Park, Bolivia’s first national park, whose landscape includes high-altitude plains, hot springs, geysers and distinctive queñua woodlands.
The mountain’s summit is covered by ice, while its lower slopes rise from the dry Altiplano. Sajama’s isolated profile makes it a major landmark, but it is not the highest mountain in the Andes overall; that distinction belongs to Aconcagua in Argentina. Nor is it the highest volcano in the Andes, a title usually associated with Ojos del Salado.
The first recorded ascent of Nevado Sajama took place in 1939, when Austrian climbers Joseph Prem and Wilfrid Kühm reached the summit. The name “Nevado” means snow-covered in Spanish, a common term used for glaciated or permanently snowy Andean peaks.