Sitting on top of the world, looking down on creation …
I do not remember the rest of the song and we were more than 10,000 meters short of the summit of the world, but it was a pretty good view anyway. I made it to the summit of El Misti, the volcano just outside Arequipa, Peru, that was my name since I first saw it about two years earlier.
I had been eagerly waiting for my friends Jason and Lisa, SCARAB (Southern California Adventure Racing Buddies) members of Los Angeles, to come here is. Our schedule kept changing, but at the last moment they mesh a few times and we could meet in Arequipa. I arranged to use a Suzuki 4×4, and Jason and I made plans to climb El Misti on Saturday and Sunday. Lisa has decided to relax in Arequipa, so we made them our driver if it is not safe to leave a vehicle at the trailhead. We were told it was a five hour climb to the campsite, but we hoped it would be less, because that would have meant arriving at the camp over time it became dark.
We were evenly matched, my years of living at 8800 meters and walk regularly at a height of more than 12,000 feet up for my age, and Jason’s (relative) youth and three weeks of high altitude hiking in Peru, made his living on m in LA We followed an easy path to the campsite at about 15,000 feet, come in three hours and 10 minutes. This gave us hope that the supposedly five to seven hour hike to the summit must be less than that. We were also told to expect temps as low as zero degrees were so thankful that it was warmer than normal. Helped by the clouds do not get below 30 degrees, so we had plenty of warm 20 degrees in our pockets and Wensel my cheap tent.
After we set up camp, Jason suggested scouting out the path to the summit, as we planned on leaving around 5:00 in the morning and were not sure we could find in the dark. We easily found the trail and walked about 20 minutes to another site, the people there said they planned on starting the summit at about 2:00 pm. By the time we returned to our camp, the wind had died down and it felt warmer, especially after hot chicken noodle soup with tuna, cheese and bread and a cup of tea. I used my soda can stove, which worked fine, after removing the windshield, I think it needed a bit more air at that altitude. Our campsite neighbor, a Frenchman suffering from the altitude was not looking too good, we found out that he did not attempt the summit. We were still below the clouds there came a great view of Arequipa and the lights turned on and half moon lit Misti above us. By 7:00 p.m., we were in our sleeping bags, hoping to get a good night’s sleep before the 4:00 alarm.
After a breakfast of instant oatmeal, we were on the trail at 4:45 in the morning, climbing through the headlights, with very little trouble following the trail. It was a fairly easy trail, not too much sand (as opposed to the trail of my previous attempt) and big enough rocks to make it interesting, but harder to route. By that time, I deeply regret my haste I forgot my gloves and packed for the trip, but Jason said his hands were warm enough and let me use his – thanks Jason!
About the time it got light, we caught up with two other groups had already begun, but was climbing very slowly. One of the guides asked if any of his teammates could follow us, so Steve with us, again a very good game when we were all climbing the same slow steady speed, very short breaks every so often. We soon lost sight of us and who never saw them again until we get back to their camp, but unfortunately they had returned and were unable to reach the top. We finally some sun when we reached a saddle between the summit and the crater, which really felt good. We were climbing the dark side, away from the sun, which made it very cool, but we were also treated to a great view of Misti miles a shadow over the landscape when the sun rose on the other side. At 8:55, after crossing a few small snow patches and a few stretches of sand, we were on the top at 19,100 feet, four hours and 10 minutes from the camp. We marveled at the huge iron cross, about 20 meters high that was there. It was built in sections, each about three meters long.
After taking a bunch of pics of the almost surreal landscape offered by the crater, black sand, rocks and light snow, and a few more of neighboring Chachani 19,925 feet, we went to the seat and ate a light snack. We did not hire a guide for the climb, but were lucky Marcio, my guide friend, went with us to the trailhead and pointed out the route to us. Steve’s guide told the route back down to camp. No need to walk down, just to proceed to the dark gray sand slope and “ski” provides that, have fun! We stopped in the camp of Steve and left him there with his teammates, who were packing, and then down. After a simple lunch (should have brought another packet of the soup), all of our food have been finished except for a small trail mix, we broke camp and went downstairs. We expected that at the summit around noon, instead we were back at camp by 11:00 hours. After a few last pictures on the trailhead, we decided to walk down the dirt road, getting almost to the highway for the meeting of Lisa and Marcio. That gave us enough time to talk about our next adventure, after their trip. Naturally Chachani calls our names, there are two peaks at 6.000 meters towards Cotahuasi where I live, Coropuna at 21,075 feet and 19,985 feet at Soli Mana.

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