Mounting Misti
I climbed Misti over the weekend. El Misti is a 5800 meter volcano visible from anywhere in Arequipa. Actually, at 5822 m (19,100 ft), it is one of the highest points in Peru.
The guides’ fees were 35 soles ($11) per person. A group of thirty – including our group of a dozen – met in Plaza de Armas at 7:30am on Saturday. From there, the guides contracted a bus to drive us as close to the mountain as the bus carrying thirty could drive along the unpaved road. At that point, we got off the bus with all our stuff and started our journey. Stuff to carry includes warm clothes, food, water, a tent and sleeping bag. Climbing Misti is a two-day affair and requires spending the night at the halfway point.
All that stuff is quite heavy. However, most of the first day’s walk isn’t very steep until the latter half of the five-hour day. On the second day, there are many parts where you have to climb. The incline isn’t 90°, as if straight up a wall, but you’re using both hands and feet to climb over boulders. Most people agree the first day is more difficult. However, there are several places to take breaks and you’re in no real rush to get to camp. I was among the first group to arrive and we had three or four hours of sunlight to spare. Other groups took the first leg slowly and still set up their tent in time for bed.
We woke up at 2am (2 AM!) on Sunday. The early start is meant to leave enough time for completing the second leg – five to six hours – and the entire descent and bus ride back to the city in time for dinner. So we started out in the pitch black guided by the half dozen or so trekkers who brought flashlights. The sun comes up faster than expected. And, as you’d expect given the altitude, it’s very cold. My fingers and toes were numb for hours. My nose ran non-stop.
While most people say the first day is more difficult, I felt the second day was more difficult. It entailed much more “climbing” – using hands and feet to get over boulders. However, you’re able to leave most of your things (sleeping bag, tent, food already eaten) at camp so you’re carrying less weight.
Did I mention how FUCKING COLD it is up there? And there isn’t much oxygen up that high. Towards the end, we took breaks every five minutes – and those couldn’t come quick enough. We’d walk twenty meters and decide to sit down for a break. There’s just not enough oxygen getting to the muscles to go for much longer.
Before arriving at the top, you have to decide whether you want to go to the cross or the crater. El Misti is a dormant volcano with a large crater in the middle. However, the apex of the mountain is some 100 meters higher and features a cross. You could probably go to both if you had determination by the time you got up there.
After arriving at the cross, we reasoned that we could see inside the crater pretty well from where we were so there was no reason to descend 200 meters and ascend a different trail 100 meters to the tip of the crater. At the summit, the view was the last thing on my mind. I laid down in the sun and took a nap. I took a fucking nap on the top!!! Others did too.
Even after waking up, I wasn’t as impressed with the view so much as the satisfaction of having made it to the top. When you’re that high, the view is similar to the view from an airplane. You can’t see shit. Arequipa, a city of 800,000, looked like a city of 80,000. Smaller Don’t get me wrong, it was cool, but I think the view from the Mirador Sachaca (a dozen stories or so) is better than the view from Misti.
Thursday night before the expedition, I sprained my ankle in basketball practice. I couldn’t walk. I spent the whole day on the couch except for a few breaks to hop to the bathroom. I was limping Saturday morning. I decided to make an attempt at Misti with my sprained ankle.
To be completely honest, this vile cunt named Lucia provided the primary inspiration in my decision to attempt Misti with the sprained ankle. Thursday afternoon, as I was being offered advice by a different Peruvian, the ornery bitch Lucia told me that I should have trained for Misti. I didn’t argue as I am pretty composed dude.
But I was insulted on the inside that this idiot bitch would doubt that I could climb Misti, which is difficult but not a feat reserved for world-class athletes. In fact, over half of our group of thirty didn’t make it to the top for various reasons. Anyway, I climbed that shit with a sprained ankle. BITCH.
My secret was taking a pain pill and wrapping my ankle under my sock. I was worried I wouldn’t keep up with everybody, but figured the worst that would happen would be quitting and setting up my tent and sleeping alone. The guides tried to talk me out of it. I ignored them. I set a goal of only finishing the first day and arriving at camp. After thirty minutes of walking, my ankle warmed up and the pain went away. After a few hours, I knew I was fine. By the time I made it to camp, I knew I’d make it to the top.
Another invaluable secret was following the advice of bringing a two-liter bottle of mate de coca. Coca tea. Or as I like to call it, cocaine tea. It doesn’t get you high, or even wake you up as much as coffee, but it has a mechanism not yet understood by science which provides energy while negating the effects of high altitude. Hence its common use in Peru and Bolivia. Nicolas, my Swiss roommate who has climbed several mountains in the Alps, fell victim to altitude sickness at camp on Saturday night and didn’t make the Sunday trip to the top. I may have suffered the same fate if it weren’t for my precious cocaine tea.
The descent was harder on my ankle. While easier for everybody else, the pressure on the ankle is heavier when going down. And contrary to the way up, people were walking faster than me. I remember thinking that if the climb were anything like the descent, I wouldn’t have made it. But I did, BITCHES.
The ankle pain wasn’t the worst I got from the adventure. And my muscles weren’t sore at all. SUNBURN kicked my ass! There is nothing like it in the States. It didn’t occur to me to put on sunblock while my fingers were numb, I couldn’t feel my toes, and I was wiping my nose so much it hurt. It was cold! But the sun shines hard and I was a lot closer to it than I’d ever been. It doesn’t take long. I learned for the first time that it hurts the most when the skin on the lips gets sunburned.
The group I arrived to the top with included my roommate / AIESECer Roy, AIESECer Erick, and San Jose teammate Winston.
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Mounting Misti? Seriously? I was searching Google for athletes foot toes and found this… will have to think about it.