Wednesday February 9th.
3,850 m to 3,950 m
Woke up this morning to frost on the ground! Thankfully, stomach has settled down. After breakfast we started the day's climb. Today was very tough. Whoever said this was “a walk up a hill” has a few screws loose!
Cold, so I wore the winter coat, gloves and wool hat. Started out at 8:30 and walked up a long gradual incline of rough terrain. We started in the middle of the pack and walk steadily for four hours, with a couple of short breaks for water.
Got to the Lava Towers by 12:30 and we were in the lead again! As we sat and rested I was very tired but Emmanuel suggested we climb the lava tower, a 100 metre block of rock, for more accimitization. Against my better judgement and because apparently I can't resist a challenge, and he said everyone would do it, I did it. It was a hard climb, hanging onto rocks and traversing a couple of spots, all in the thin air of 4800 metres. We made it and the view was spectacular. The people below looked like ants. We sat and talked for awhile, and I got to know him a bit better, then we made the difficult climb back down.
Worth noting I didn't notice anyone else do it! Then we had to walk another two hours downhill to Barranco campsite. Really hard on the legs, slipping on loose gravel.
Just before camp we came across some beautiful cactus like vegetation and a rushing mountain stream.
I immediately headed into my tent and collapsed. After six hours of hiking, I was exhausted.
Read a bit, dozed a lot, and then had dinner, pasta with beef strips and stir fried veggies, two crepes, leek soup, pineapple and tea.
Bedtime. Tomorrow I have to decide whether it's 6 or 7 days.
Woke up this morning to frost on the ground! Thankfully, stomach has settled down. After breakfast we started the day's climb. Today was very tough. Whoever said this was “a walk up a hill” has a few screws loose!
Cold, so I wore the winter coat, gloves and wool hat. Started out at 8:30 and walked up a long gradual incline of rough terrain. We started in the middle of the pack and walk steadily for four hours, with a couple of short breaks for water.
Got to the Lava Towers by 12:30 and we were in the lead again! As we sat and rested I was very tired but Emmanuel suggested we climb the lava tower, a 100 metre block of rock, for more accimitization. Against my better judgement and because apparently I can't resist a challenge, and he said everyone would do it, I did it. It was a hard climb, hanging onto rocks and traversing a couple of spots, all in the thin air of 4800 metres. We made it and the view was spectacular. The people below looked like ants. We sat and talked for awhile, and I got to know him a bit better, then we made the difficult climb back down.
Worth noting I didn't notice anyone else do it! Then we had to walk another two hours downhill to Barranco campsite. Really hard on the legs, slipping on loose gravel.
Just before camp we came across some beautiful cactus like vegetation and a rushing mountain stream.
I immediately headed into my tent and collapsed. After six hours of hiking, I was exhausted.
Read a bit, dozed a lot, and then had dinner, pasta with beef strips and stir fried veggies, two crepes, leek soup, pineapple and tea.
Bedtime. Tomorrow I have to decide whether it's 6 or 7 days.
Hey Joe!
ReplyDeleteNot a competitive bone in your body!
Those cactus are fantastic!