Simon has been asking me for a while when we can climb a big mountain together. So I said sure and we decided to give 19,000 ft Mt Misti that towers over Arequipa, Peru a try. Mt Climbing is one of my favorite things to do and having grown up in Arequipa, Misti had been a dream of mine to climb some day. And now I had the opportunity to take my son with me!
We went to 2 Peruvian guide shops in downtown Arequipa to get more info on the climb. We were told that it was an 8.000 foot ascent, with an overnight base camp. We didn’t have any climbing gear with us so the guide company said they would provide it. It is between 15-35 degrees Fahrenheit up the mountain and so some serious gear is needed. The first guide company I checked assured me that they would provide us with boots. When I asked to see them they brought out a pair of worn snowboard boots… hmmm, that’s a lot of walking on trails and scree to do in snowboard boots I thought.
The next guide company seemed much more prepared, with various mountaineering boots to try on, gear that seemed suitable to the conditions we’d be facing. The main items we needed to focus on were water (no water sources on the mountain) and snackfood.
They said we needed 5 liters of water each, but I drink a lot and so I took 8 and simon 5 liters. Our packs were kind of heavy.
When our Peurvian guide Juan first saw Simon I believe he wondered how he would fare with this climb. It turns out Juan has been guiding on Misti and Chachani, the 2 major mountains outside Arequipa for the last 15 years, he’s kind of seen it all. We packed into a jeep with a solo French climber and a couple from Lima, Peru and headed out towards the mountain. It took a couple of bumpy, dusty hours to get us to the end of the road at around 11,000 feet. We said goodbye to the jeep driver and we put on our packs and started up the trail. Simon was continuously asking questions in Spanish to our guide Juan. Within a mile of so of the start of our climb toward base camp, Juan said “Simon es muy fuerte.” He felt the weight of Simon’s pack, carrying 5 L of water and grinned. The couple from Lima, Peru struggled to keep up with us and he made a point saying that the 13 year old kid from the US was carrying as much as they were…
We set up basecamp at 14,500 feet. Our guide and another guide that were up there used a full size gas tank that they had hauled up the mountain to cook soup, a main dish with chicken and rice for us and then tea afterward. I’m used to the freeze-dried stuff when backpacking from the US and this meal was way better.
As the sun set we could see lights of Arequipa, city of over 1 million people stretched out below us. It also became very cold as the sun set and we promptly got in our tents and sleeping bags and said goodnight. We had slight headaches from the altitude and both took some ibuprofen before going to bed. It’s hard to sleep at high elevation so we didn’t sleep much that night. Plus the cold kept creeping in despite our sleeping bags and jackets and stocking caps…
We woke around 1am for an alpine start. After a quick drink of some coca leaf tea and a Starbucks Via I brought with me and a few bites of a granola bar we were off for the summit. The couple from Lima decided they wanted to give the summit a try even though our guide told them the night before that based on how they did climbing to base camp they were unlikely to make it. We climbed for several hours often waiting for the couple to catch up to us. Simon was eager and strong as he climbed higher and higher. Around 16000 feet, Simon and I waited in a cave that protected us from the wind while our guide went down to find the rest of group trailing. When they reached the cave, he asked them to stay in the cave till sunrise and till he returned from summiting with Simon and I.
Under the glow of city lights and stars above we continued to climb… I was aided by Midnight and Sky full of Stars from Coldplay which seemed fitting. And I kept thanking God for this opportunity to be climbing Misti with my son!
Despite it’s high elevation, Misti is located in the Atacama desert – the driest desert in the world and therefore has very little snow and ice except for the very top. Around 17,500 feet we had a stretch of ice to cross (nieves penitentes) actually, which are sharp, hard cup formation from freezing and thawing at high elevations. Simon was feeling pretty exhausted but had enough energy to put on crampons and tether himself to our guide with the rope. We slowly traversed the icy slope, knowing that a fall on the ice would mean a serious beating. After the traverse we arrived at the crater! Yeah!
There was another area across the crater with a cross that was the highest point but our guide said it would take another hour or more to get to and Simon was laying supine at the crater and appeared tired. I too was tired. We focused on our breathing as the air was very thin. And we decided to head down after snapping some victory pictures, wanting to save some energy for the long decent.
After carefully going back down the icy snow field with our crampons, we removed them and headed towards the long sandy slope. We were able to basically jump and ski down the long slope almost all the way to basecamp! It took us 7 hours going up to reach the crater that morning and 1 hour going down to our basecamp. Also – as we descended, Simon seemed to have more and more energy once again! It had been the altitude sapping our strength.
We took a short rest back at camp, donating about 2 liters of extra water we had carried up and wearily packed up our tents, sleeping bags and everything else to head down to the trailhead.
The couple from Lima were back at camp having not waited for our guide to return from the summit and Juan had a few choice words regarding their decision.
We arrived back at the car around 2pm exhausted. Out guide said he had never seen a 13 year old make it to the crater before, and reiterated that Simon was “muy fuerte.”
Anderson’s go South... 