El Misti towers over the city of Arequipa and is one of those typical looking Volcanoes - conical with a big crater at the top. While active it apparently hasn't puffed any smoke or caused any concern for over a hundred years. Still it is a very impressive Volcano when you can see it from anywhere in the city.
The idea to climb El Misi actually came from the Atacama, where you can take day trips to local Volcanoes some or which are still active and where I believe you can see lava. Disappointingly I missed out on doing any trips there, but it was great that Arequipa presented an alternative.
Our hike started deceptively well at 3,400m. Even though that's pretty high it was like traversing a gentle hill in the Australian bush. Not too much effort at all. However after a few hours of carrying 15kg at a nice warm temperature of 25 with increasing altitude and an ever rising degree of steepness - things started to get a bit more difficult. None the less we powered on for about 5 hours without too much fuss.
After our easy start the last hour of hiking on day 1 was very tough as the terrain changed to volcanic ash, which was like climbing sand dunes, plus the altitude was starting to cause us to have significantly more fatigue. By the time we reached our camp for the night at 4,500m we were pretty stuffed, but it was worth it to see the amazing sunset over the city of Arequipa - laid out in front of us.
After a quick dinner at 6pm it was time to hit the hay as we had to be up at 1am to tackle the summit - the reason of which I'm still not sure. One of our ultra boring, non social, Swiss origin hiking group advised me not take any sleeping tablets due to the altitude too which meant sleeping was going to be difficult.
In hindsight I'd recommend not sleeping at 4,500m, in the freezing cold, with uncomfortably cold sleeping bags at 6pm with no sleeping tablets. To say it sucked was an understatement and I think I had an hour of sleep at best before arising at 1am for 'breakfast' at surely -2 degrees or less. I'm still not sure how I managed to get up considering for 99% of the night I was committed to abandoning ship.
Once awake, fed and rugged up in nearly every wifebeater and pair of boardies I own we set off for the summit with the twinkling lights of Arequipa shining on our backs in the clear night.
Again it was more volcanic ash hiking, very tough going and a lot of switchbacks as the steepness had increased considerably. A few hours in my hands and feet were super cold and painful due to inadequate gear and decreased blood circulation, however I was in a good frame of mind. However about 3-4 hours in Nina and one of the other girls were struggling and I was walking 3-4 steps and feeling like I'd just sprinted 100m. At this rate we we were going to take another 4 hours just to get the final 500m out of the way.
So a few of the group went on ahead (no big loss, they were the worst group of people that we'd met all trip), while we battled on for a bit longer. At 5,290m we pulled the pin and decided to go back down. I thought I just about had frostbite on my toes so I was very keen to get to some warmth and the other girl with us was flat on her back and not moving so that was a pretty good indication she was done!
The journey down was much more fun - 'skiing' down the volcanic ash chutes which took about 30 minutes, compared to the 4 hours going up. After a few hours kip back at the camp the rest of the group who summited arrived back and we set off down to the base.
In the end we were unsuccessful, but I'm glad we gave it a crack. It certainly gave me a much better appreciation for the preparation needed to summit a much higher peak.....if you know what I mean!
Our briefing the day before climbing.....boy this makes it feel like more than just a walk in the park.
Volcano El Misti keeps growing in height as we get closer and closer.
The equal worst group of people we met in South America. Spending just 2 days with them was a chore. For the record they were Swiss and French.
The group sets off while I listen to some tunes on the way up.
Sunset at 4,500. Our day turned from high 20's and beautiful to freezing cold at about 4,000m.
I was still smiling at this point! For the next 12 hours there was no more smiling.
Stuck at 5,290m - at this point we were smiling because we made the decision to go down.
Skiing 800m down the volcanic ash was the fun part! It took about 30 minutes to go down what had taken us 4 hours to get up. Nina is already a fair ways in front of me here, down the bottom left.
