Acatenango Volcano Hike – The Highest I’ve Ever Been

December 16-17, 2017

Getting Prep’d

I’d spent awhile researching this hike, and the consensus was that this was gonna be very hard. But after everyone talks about how hard it is, they also mention how doable it is. Sounds like every hike I’ve ever read about. That said, I hadn’t spoken to anyone who had also completed the Ciudad Perdida trek in Colombia, which was the hardest physical thing I’ve ever done, and what I compare everything else to.

The basics are that Volcan Acatenango is the 3rd-highest peak in Central America at 3,976m (13,045 ft). Eight of the ten highest in peaks Central America are in Guatemala, with the highest being just 200m higher than Acatenango – Volcan Tajumulco at 4,220m. Acatenango erupted most recently in 1972, but is considered inactive. It’s a tough hike for three main reasons – altitude cold, and sand.

Mountain climbers say that you need to acclimatize for a week once at 3,000m and then another week for every thousand meters above that. Sadly, that wasn’t in the plans for me, nor for most people who attempt the hike. Antigua is at 1,500m and already I could feel it in my body walking around and climbing some stairs to get up to my room at Violeta’s house. It comes as a very rapid heartbeat at first, followed my a much quicker exhaustion point than you’re used to. The thinner air reduces your red blood cell count making your heart pump faster and harder to achieve the same level of output. Basically, your heart is going to tire out quickly, even if your muscles don’t feel so tired. Many people don’t make it all the way up to the camp site, others can’t manage the final sunrise climb to the summit. Even sleeping at this altitude is not easy, often waking up in the middle of the night short of breath. Altitude sickness can hit anyone, even if you’ve trained, acclimatized, or been at altitude before. You can feel dizzy, nauseous, even have hallucinations or vomit. Headaches are common, and dehydration is almost a guarantee.

The cold is based on the elevation, but also because at the top of a volcano there’s almost no vegetation meaning that the wind whips quite fiercely. Plus, being on top of a mountain in general tends to be cold. The tours rent out cold weather gear for this purpose, which I partly took advantage of. The sand is tough because you end up taking two steps forward and one step back. I rented a hiking stick at the beginning, but a couple in my group went without, which was amazing to me. Also, the sand is extremely fine and sticky (volcanic ash), and gets everywhere. When I finished, it looked like I was wearing mascara with a nice thick layer of ash over my golden eyelashes!

As I mentioned, I ended up going with the Tropicana Hostel guided tour, which cost about $65. The upshot was that they already have a campsite setup near the summit and so you don’t need to carry up tents, sleeping bags etc. Also, the guide carries up the food, which is a big part of pack weight. That said, you still need to carry all your water, snacks and clothes, which given the change in climates, needed to include many layers. I always end up packing too much, but this time I ended up using everything I packed.

• Clothes: base layers, pants, athletic shirt, fleece, puffer jacket, rain jacket, hat, gloves, hiking socks, dry socks, extra massive and hilarious Eddie Bauer jacket I rented from Tropicana
  • At the summit, I ended up wearing every single piece of clothes I had and was still freezing
• Toiletries: contacts case pre-filled, glasses, sunglasses, toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant
• Snacks: nuts, chocolate, Larabars, hard-boiled eggs, 6 L of water including 1 hot
• Gear: camera + battery, phone, spare battery, Kindle, toilet paper, headlamp, playing cards

All told, this was probably at least 13 kg, with about half of that being water, not a light load. I’d tried shoving everything into my daypack, but it wasn’t even close and I had to empty most of my big bag at Violeta’s house for the night to use for the hike.

Meet The Crew

I was glad I had eaten at Violeta’s first, as the “provided” breakfast at the hostel was just a couple pancakes and a glass of juice. Eggs FTW as always. Here I met my group, which was technically 8, but ended up being just 4 plus our guide for most of the time (the Guatemalan contingent of 4 was slower and ended up separating for the day). I was joined by Alex (U.S.), Laura (Switzerland) and Jonny (U.K.). Alex and Laura were around my age, both doing some long-ish travel, while Jonny was in his mid-40s and on a long holiday like myself. One of my favorite parts of travel is how much I’m able to expand the age range of the people I hang out with. This goes both ways, now that I’m definitely on the older end of the backpacker range, meeting 17-20 year old travelers provides more insight than I’d expected.

We all chatted for the hourlong ride from Antigua to the base of the volcano and it was clear we had good chemistry from the start. I’m always worried about pace on hikes, as I’m pretty slow, but we ended up having a good mix of that as well, particularly as everyone was humbled by the elevation (except for Alexa, who has hiked a few Fourteeners (14,000+ ft peaks) in Colorado.

Our guide, Edy, was ~25 and already married with a child. He has done the trek hundreds of times, and supposedly holds a record for ascending and descending in around 3 hours. Considering that the climb is over 5,000 ft of elevation gain and about 25 km round trip, I found it hard to believe. But later, after seeing how he navigated the mountain, I became a convert. We all spoke some Spanish, so had a good time together cracking jokes, learning about each other and sucking air like our lives depended on it.

The Hike

We started at a good pace, and then within a few minutes got to a random farm with toilets and food. Most people were a bit hungry already as the breakfast was not so substantial. The sun was peaking through the clouds, so it got hot quickly and we were all down to short sleeves almost immediately, donning sunscreen as the sun and UV rays are significantly stronger at higher elevation.

As soon as we started ascending some switch backs, I could feel the altitude start to bear down on me and we started taking frequent breaks to catch our breath. Surprisingly, my heart rate recovered pretty quickly, but still, you start to feel the light-headedness and dehydration and need to take precautions.

About an hour in and it was already noon so we stopped for lunch just after entering the park. There were many groups here, serving different things from soup to sandwiches to what we had, which were burritos. This tasted great, of course, but felt like I didn’t want to move much after, especially as we warmed ourselves by the cooking fires.

The next few hours were mostly a blur of exhaustion and light snack breaks. My favorite was that Jonny, the good chap that he is, brought a Snickers for everyone in the group. I really cherished this and held out as long as I could before chomping down on it for some much-needed sugar. The weather immediately got colder as we spent most of the middle of the hike covered by trees and the sun went behind lots of thick clouds as we got higher, to the point that we were at / above the level of the clouds. This would be the highest elevation I’d ever climbed to. Despite starting out in a clump of groups, we separated ourselves towards the middle, as our campsite was located on a different side of the volcano than most others. This would give us a better view of Volcan Fuego at night, which was supposedly one of the highlights of the hike.

The last hour of the hike for the day was with minimal elevation change as we circled around the side of the volcano to our campsite. The wind at this point started to become ridiculous and Jonny’s amazing furry hat flew off his head and tumbled 50m down the side of the volcano. The terrain at this stage is strictly sand, which is quite a pain to walk through, let alone go down 50m for a hat. That said, Edy came up behind us, saw the situation and immediately dropped his pack and started hopping down the volcano like a mountain goat and summarily returned with the hat in hand. We were all pretty much speechless watching this feat. He then put the pack back on and kept moving. Just crazy to me how the human body can adjust to and normalize physical and mental challenges.

Finally, after 6+ hours hiking and 5,000+ feet of elevation climbed, we arrived at camp! Edy started a fire, and we all quickly put on all of our layers. The wind was biting, almost comical, to the point that there was an enormous log (6+ feet) placed on top of the fire to block the wind. It was close to sunset now, and getting colder by the minute. Thankfully, Jonny, ever the Englishman, had brought up a little bit of some kind of local brandy, which although tasting a lot like cough syrup, was just what the doctor ordered. We sat around waiting for the tents to be setup and watched the clouds speed by, waiting for a break in the action to see Volcan Fuego, and perhaps an eruption. The best way I can describe the scene of these clouds was like the opening credits of The Simpsons, where the clouds part and the sun shines in while angels sing. This scene happened a couple of times for us, where all of a sudden the clouds would part enough for blocks of sun rays to come bathe us for a few seconds. The colors came through a bit at sunset, but we didn’t get a good view of the volcano until after dark. I had, unsurprisingly given my lack of sense of direction, thought that the volcano was located about 90 degrees to the right of where it was.

The dark brought bitter cold, and we all took turns putting our bodies close to the fire as we waited for an eruption and for dinner. We got the call for dinner and hoped that we wouldn’t miss an eruption while we were eating. Since the wind was too strong, our guide wasn’t able to cook on the open fire, so we huddled in his tent and he cooked on a propane camping stove – not exactly the safest thing, but we were hungry and options were slim. He made a tasty pasta with some bread and homemade cheese from his family’s farm, which tasted a lot like ricotta / goat cheese – perfect for pasta. We washed that down with some wine and then reused those cups for hot chocolate, which was oh-so-tasty!

After dinner we did finally get one eruption! First we could feel a very distinct rumbling in the ground, like a large truck was passing by, plus the sound of something like thunder. Then we were greeted by the eruption. The sight of orange lava spewing from a mountain not too far from where I was standing was astounding. I never expected that seeing a volcano erupt would feel so energetic and powerful, but it did. Thankfully, one of the Guatemalan hikers who had split off earlier had brought out his camera and snapped a couple decent shots of the eruption.

Shivering in my space boots, I decided it was time to call it and maneuver into my designated part of the tent. It was decided that the ladies would sleep in the middle and the gents on the sides to be more exposed to the cold. We ended up all being quite snuggled together in the end, under a couple extra sleeping bags that we used as blankets. Surprisingly, I slept quite well, nodding off around 8:30, and sleeping pretty soundly until our 4am wakeup call. Throughout the night though, I did have to use the bathroom, which was a freezing and frightening experience, walking to the edge of a precipice to pee into the freezing wind. However, I was rewarded with one of the clearest night skies I’d ever seen, which is always a joy for me.

Summiting Acatenango

We had agreed as a group the night before to forgo breakfast at first and get right up to the top of the volcano as soon as awoke. This would ensure that we arrived before sunrise, and then we’d enjoy a more leisurely breakfast when we got back down in daylight. This was definitely the better option.

We were out of camp by 4:20am, and with nothing but my camera (thanks crew for bringing water!), we donned everything we had and started the hourlong trek up to the summit in the dark. While I expected it to be a tough hike, the darkness was not as bad as I’d imagined, as it hones your vision a bit, and focuses your brain since you can’t see much else. We did have a dog that followed us up, which was a bit of a nuisance, and we also stopped a few times to watch Fuego erupt again and again. It never got old.

We arrived at the top just as light was beginning to break, and we were told that at the top the wind would be so strong that we’d need to link arms and effectively walk sideways. With all of us carrying hiking sticks, this proved to be a bit awkward, and difficult with the wind speed reaching upwards of 60 mph. We were also told that we wouldn’t spend more than 30 minutes on the top, simply because it was too cold. I’d say the air temperature was slightly below freezing, but with the wind, which unfortunately was coming at us from the direction of the sunrise, was nearly unbearable to face.

But, it was completely worth it.

Seeing the sun slowly rise over a volcano, clearing the clouds in its way, from over 15,000 feet above the sea, was unforgettable. One of those memories that immediately sears itself into your brain.

Beauty – majesty – power – sunshine – clarity

We stayed up for a while as the sun came up, but then agreed we were too cold to do anything but retreat to the side of the volcano. The hike down was just as stunning, with clear blue skies and the thick gray ash cloud from Fuego moving through the sky.

Here’s a video (courtesy of Jonny) of what it looked like at the top.

Breakfast was simple – some soup, a yogurt / granola and an apple, along with a hard-boiled egg (additional to the ones I’d packed). We packed up camp and started our descent around 8am. With (fewer) breaks, we ended up back at the bottom around 11, about half the time it took us to hike up. While it was certainly easier, the way down was no cake walk. With all of the sand, and dealing with hikers coming up (you can do Acatenango as a day-hike all the way to the top in one go), it was tough on the knees and much hotter. Also, we were slipping and sliding all over the place. I made it most of the way down unscathed, but then the final 30 minutes were pretty rough. It got to the point that I was thinking so much about not falling that I would lose balance and slip around on the sand.

Leaving Antigua

We arrived back in Antigua as promised at noon, and headed straight to the bar for celebratory beers. It also happened to be Jonny’s son’s 18th birthday that day, so we video’d him in and sang while cheers’ing him profusely. We were all dead tired, but a cheap, refreshing beer on a sunny day on a rooftop does wonders for the soul.

I had hoped to make it to lunch with Adina and Adam before they left for the airport, but it wasn’t in the cards as I needed to change, pack and eat all before 3:45 when I would leave for my shuttle van to my next stop of Lake Atitlan, which was supposed to leave at 4. I did all that with time to spare for Violeta to make me lunch, again so delicious, and was waiting for the van by 3:40, expecting to get picked up anywhere between 3:45 and 4:15. I’d been told that I’d be one of the first pickups on the route and to be ready. Of course, I knew this to be a ploy, but still, knowing me, I was ready.

Violeta and I were chatting and waiting, and finally at 4, I decided to haul all my stuff over to the agency and see what happened. It was a Sunday, so when I arrived, the door was closed. I knocked, quite frustrated, and finally a teenaged baby-faced boy opened the door. Arguing in Spanish requires real skill, and I’m just not there yet with my fluency, but I got my point across and he shut the door to look for an answer. He came back quickly saying they didn’t have a 4pm van, after which I shoved my receipt, showing just that, in his face. He went back in and called the owners (his parents), and came back to tell me that someone would be back to Violeta’s house to pick me up at 4:15. I rushed back, and arrived with a few minutes to spare. I set down my bags out front of her store and waited. Then, after 15 minutes, we headed back inside and Violeta called the owner, who she knew quite well, having been a host for 15+ years and sending travelers to them (though this was not her recommended agency).

It turned out that they had mixed up the time and were sending someone for 5pm, so to sit tight. At that point, I was watching Violeta pull apart dried palm leaves to make string to tie her famous Christmas tamales, made sweet with raisins and cinnamon. I could smell the batter being cooked in the kitchen, and I was suddenly a little wistful to stay another night and enjoy these in the morning. Apparently, she was making 200 on special order for someone’s Christmas party (she doesn’t make them for her family anymore), which was a week away.

At 5:15, she called the owner again, who relayed that the driver said he was already in front of the house. Now frustrated, Violeta started to lay into the male owner. He knew where she lived, they’d been there many times before, and there shouldn’t be any confusion. He reassured her that the driver would be there shortly.

Finally, at 5:45, we saw a van down a block and a half from her building moving very slowly. We waved it down and the guy hopped out and walked towards us.  Now two hours late, I would at least have a private shuttle onwards to Panajachel, though I’d be too late to get one of the public shuttle boats, called lanchas, to the town around the lake where my hostel was located. Violeta had already confirmed with the owner that the driver would take me directly to my hostel instead of the town where the lanchas were, as there would be none left by the time we arrived. We then confirmed this directly with the driver again.

That turned out not to matter.

Photos

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