Ryan Hall’s Volcano Trek
November 05, 2010
By Ryan Hall
Our alarm went off way too early for being on vacation. It was 4:45 am, in Antigua, Guatemala and Sara and I were scheduled to meet our guide for a hike at 5 am. Two cups of delicious Antiguan coffee later (in the afternoon Sara and I had the opportunity to tour a friend of ours gigantic local coffee plantation, which was amazing) we were hopping into our guides truck for an hour drive to the base of volcano Acatenango. Sara and I didn’t know much about Acatenango-this portion of the trip had been planned by our Guatemalan friend, who had arranged everything and we were just told when to show up. We thought it would be more of a leisurely hike up one of the neighboring volcanoes- little did we know what awaited.
On the way, we learned that Oscar, our guide, was a former professional Guatemalan cyclist who had retired a few years ago. We learned many insights about what it is like to be a professional athlete in Guatemala. When we parked the truck it was still dark and fairly cold. Waiting for us was an even more local guide (who lived at the base of the volcano, at roughly 8,000 ft) named Juan. When the guide informed us we were going to be climbing roughly 6,000 ft over 6 miles (it turned out it was only 4 miles to the summit and a 5,000 ft climb…we found that things get a little exaggerated in Guatemala) I started to wonder if I had realized what I had gotten us into. However, climbing is one of my favorite things to do. I find it to be deeply revitalizing to my soul.
We started out the hike with all the enthusiasm of a school boy on his first day of class. Having been down from altitude for the past 4 weeks it was a rude awakening to my lungs to be charging uphill at 8,000 ft. Our first mile took nearly 50 minutes according to my Garmin 210 watch. It was weird to look down at the pace function and see predicted mile splits of times that I am accustomed to covering ten miles during. Sara and I were still feeling good at half way when I looked back and noticed a dog coming up on the trail behind up. “Un perro” I shouted to our guide who was not at all taken aback by our newest member. He later told us it was his dog, Coyote, who commonly joins the expeditions he guides and has even hung out on the volcano for three days before returning home.
The scenery was constantly changing as we got higher and higher. First we were trekking through the jungle, which then gave way to pine trees, but when we started to get up at elevations over 11,000 ft the trees thinned considerably until the only thing left was black sand. By the time we made our last stop we were tired. Our quads and calves were burning and Sara and I were both higher in elevation than we had ever been. Even our local guide, Oscar, seemed to be drifting off the pace that Juan was setting, despite the fact that Juan was dressed in a collard shirt, jeans, and rubber rain boots.
Oscar had promised that if we were feeling good enough we could race the last 200 meters of the climb, which he assured us was brutally steep and sandy. Despite the fatigue from fatigued from hours of climbing, how could we pass up a race? Sara took off in the opening meters while Juan was more walking than jogging. I was sitting behind Juan trying in vain to jog. Juan and I passed Sara about 25 meters into the race, by which time we were all humbled to a walk. Juan’s home turf advantage seemed to be playing off as he opened up a slight gap on me. Man, I haven’t hurt like this in awhile I thought to myself as my legs were now completely filled with lactic acid. Juan finally started to show his first signs of fatigue as he had stopped opening his lead on me. Finally, with less than 20 meters to go I threw in my last effort to try and overtake Juan. I had just enough energy in reserve to reach the summit first, although Juan had smiling commented later that he had let me win to make sure he got a good tip.
The view from the summit was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We could see 14 other volcanoes and as far as both the borders of El Salvador and Mexico. Not only that, but we were less than a half mile (as the crow flies) to the top of a volcano named Fuego. True to its name, Fuego spits out smoke and lava periodically throughout the day, making one to believe it’s going to blow at any second. I have climbed my share of mountains in my life but this topped them all. As Sara and I walked around the tip of the volcano I told her this was one of the coolest things I have ever done. If you want to see a preview video of Sara and my Race with Juan go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kldg0I1Yowk and if you want to check out more details of our climb then go to http://bit.ly/dsx4IH…for splits, elevation profile and more (compliments of my Garmin 210). One last note: we never saw our guide’s dog, Coyote, after we started descending, perhaps he is still up there milking other tourist for treats.
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