WARN Industries sponsored the Jeep Wrangler High-Altitude World Record being held
in Ojos del Salado, Chile. The plan is to climb the Ojos del Salado volcano (highest volcano
in earth, with a peak at 6892 meters) and reach the mark of 6500 meters.
See below for
project information, or visit
www.hoehenrekord2007.com.
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Jeep Wrangler High-Altitude World Record
"Atacama II - The Return"
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South America. The Chilean Andes.
We are on the highest volcano in the earth - Ojos del Salado, with a peak at 6892 meters.
If someone plans to go to the top of the mountain, that person dares a dangerous
adventure in a life-threatening environment: storms in hurricane force, temperatures
up to minus 40 degrees celsius, deep crevasse, precipices which are hundreds of meters,
extreme thin air and nothing but endless, red-hot desert all around.
Only experienced high mountain alpinists dare to climb to that mountain. However, this
mountain is the destiny of the record holder Matthias Jeschke from Limburg and his team.
In 2005 he already climbed up to 6358 meters by car off his own. Now, Matthias' plan is to
reach the mark of 6500 meters by the new Jeep® Wrangler Unlimited. The product
launch in Europe will be this year at the same time. He wants to set up a high-altitude world
record for cars which is unbreakable any more because in theory, it is impossible to get
higher with a car somewhere else in the world than on this mountain. It is a challenging
project, which has been planned since about one year. The team (13 men and 2 women)
was practising several months under high-altitude conditions.
Concerning the weather, there is only in a certain period of time in March a chance
of success. Matthias Jeschke, multiple record holder and owner of the
recent high-altitude record, is the hunter for this year's world record. However,
the hunter may become the hunted one when the race for the crown starts. Even
several competing teams from different countries are preparing to break the existing
record and are trying to reach the ultimate altitude at the moment.
If everything goes well, the ascent could be made in around six to ten days: six to ten
days of hard physical work and exertions in a very thin air on the way to the highest
point, a little rock plateau approximately 300 to 400 meters under the top.
The team has to cope with barriers which are extremely hard to overcome using two
competition cars: glacier crevasses, steep slopes, meter-high rock boulders, razor-sharp
ice rocks, a 10-meter-high ledge and the frozen, insidious crater
lake (because of the mountaineer tradition the team will, of course, refuse additional
oxygen out of breathing bottles). Each member of the group will reach his or her physical
and mental limit.
The expedition to Chile will be accompanied by two experienced camera teams,
which are especially prepared for this tour. Moreover, there are pictures of the first
exploration on the volcano and the high-altitude training in the
Andes (November 2006). In addition, we accompanied and portrayed each member
of the team during his preparations in Germany. The team of Matthias Jeschke
consists out of very interesting characters with different backgrounds who have one
thing in common: to fulfil a long-lasting dream (the business women from Bavaria,
a young engineer, an entrepreneur from Thuringia, a journalist etc.).
For the included TV documentation, we have interesting additional stories:
- stories all about country and its people in the rough but beautiful nature
of the Chilean Andes
- stories all about the base camp and Sebastiano Martinez, the leader of the
ranger station on the Ojos del Salado
- our expedition doctor Hubertus Franz is known as the "race-doc" in the rally
scene. He will be prepared when there are any health problems under the
extreme conditions. Additionally, he is the driver of the highly-modern, 8-wheeled amphibian vehicle, the safety car, in case of an emergency
- our high-altitude adviser Hans Siebenhaar is a professional mountaineer
and has already climbed the highest volcanoes in the world. Along with our doc, he
acts as our expert on the mountain and gives our project leader Matthias Jeschke
advice on safety and especially on the insidious weather changes on the volcano.
He will provide us further insights into the special, even "extraterrestrial" world in
the hostile to life high mountain region
If everything goes according to plan, the successful ending of the project will be
celebrated on March 18th, 2007 in Santiago de Chile.
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