Paul Versus the Volcano

Well after swearing off the whole hiking/generally exerting myself thing I went and did what is up until this point officially the most stupid and hardest thing I have ever done, and I cant even blame it on the Larium either! Inca Trail was a cake walk in comparison! What am I talking about? I finally took the plunge and decided to climb a mountain. El Misti to be precise (5822m I think!) on the outskirts of Arequipa in Peru...never again! Well its a volcano actually but thats just nitpicking!

So we started bright and early being picked up by our guide from the hostal, decided its all pretty stupid and Im having second thoughts at this point so maybe he wont find me if I cower in the toilets until he is gone...no such luck! We head towards our date with destiny and due to what Im assuming is pollution in the air only the peak of the Mountain was visible (notice the respectful use of capital M there!), this gives the whole mountain an eerie presence as if an ancient god is peering down on us from on high. Please be merciful I mutter to the looming giant above me.

Over the next few hours we climbed to the basecamp at around 5,000m which was a difficult long slow slog, dinner of sardine pasta and coca tea at 5pm, and yep it tastes as good as it sounds! To bed at 6pm for a very bad nights sleep before being woken at 2am for the last leg. Finally at 7am and losing one of our group, he had to turn back, nothing more serious luckily we made it to the top. I had done it, fought both physical and mental barriers to reach the peak!

So my thoughts after the event...was a horrible experience but I think given a bit of hindsight an amazing one. Had the most amazing sunset ever, the sun somehow was refracted into 2 so it was a double sunset! Sunrise was also amazing and gave me the hope that I needed to finish climbing the mountain after walking so long in the dark, I never thought the sun would rise, then realised I was looking in the wrong direction! Views from the top were also awesome...wait a minute Im sure there was some horrible bits as well.

Oh yes, the altitude got me, but not too bad, was exhausted and hungry but anything I ate made me feel very sick, got to the top (one of our party had to give up as he felt so bad) and had a nice lie on the rocks for about 20 minutes before I could move! Have never felt so exhausted in my life, at various points I just wanted to lay on the rocks and freeze to death rather than carry on climbing. But somehow I carried on and made it to the top, realised its actually higher than my skydive by a considerable margin!

Funny thing is that as you climb a mountain and drain all those vital energy suplies you always forget about the return journey! Thankfully this was rather easier...if a tad scarier as we had to run helter skelter down a massive scree slope for an hour, every second wondering when that big rock would pounce and break an ankle...luckily although I came close once or twice we made it back to basecamp exhausted but unbroken!

Then came the supposed easy bit, the walk back to the car. Possibly worse than the ascent as nature had conspired to make the only path down a mixture of small ballbearing like rocks and fine silica sand...cue lots of hilarious moments as we Scooby Doo style ran on the spot before falling on our arses.

Anyway feeling much better about the whole experience after a nice long shower and a proper bed to lie in!

Thought I would include some piccies of the experience. Actually Im struggling to attach pictures for some reason so as soon as I can there will be evidence of me actually doing some excercise!

In order of appearance




1.The intrepid group begins...not knowing whats in store for them!
2.Sunset at basecamp, just kept on getting better, unfortunately was trying to get some sleep for the climb ahead
3.The volcanoes shadow, pretty awesome just watching it stretch right to the horizon kept me mesmerised for ages.
4.Very cold, looking stupid, but hey I made it!
5.View from the top and the way down. Just run for it!