Toughest hike in my life. nervous.
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Let me correct above! Yesterday I did the toughest hike of my life!
I'm currently on Tenerife, and the day before yesterday I got the spontaneous idea of hiking up Pico Viejo, the second-highest peak on the island. It's just 1000m altitude gain, from 2000 to 3000 meters above zero, less than Ben Nevis. No problem, no?
This is what I saw from the parking place *gulp*:
After having climbed 300 of those 1000m the view was like this (not really different):
Aaand just 100m distance to the crater
View into the crater. Pico del Teide in the background.
The problem with this hike is that it's a lot steeper than Ben Nevis, only about 12km for the roundtrip instead of 18. And the underground is not solid rock but mostly volcanic sand and rubble, and small and larger pieces of volcanic rock. Thus it really felt like 2 steps up, one down again. Plus it was about 23 degrees C warmer than Ben Nevis. Anyway, I needed 5 hours to reach the top, just got there 5 minutes to 17:00, the cutoff time I'd set myself. Down only took me 90 minutes, btw.
I'll also visit Pico del Teide but will go up by cable car. I still need to hike 300m of altitude to the top at over 3700m above zero though, and I'll hike down. Lets see how well that works at that altitude.6 -
That looks amazing. You really are getting some interesting walk/climbs in.
How did your legs fare?
I've never been up anything so sparse looking. That alone would be interesting.
You are quite inspiring. Carry on posting your walks, please.
Cheers, h.0 -
What a fun story! Thanks for the photos! This year I've experienced acclimation sickness while hiking and it is not fun. So many rest stops. That view is very desolate and interesting. Sounds like a lot of fun.0
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middlehaitch wrote: »That looks amazing. You really are getting some interesting walk/climbs in.
How did your legs fare?
I've never been up anything so sparse looking. That alone would be interesting.
You are quite inspiring. Carry on posting your walks, please.
Cheers, h.
Thanks a lot h. I might actually as I love hiking
I guess it keeps me sane now that I can't run anymore (bloody bunions). My legs were fairly ok but it still was so tough getting up there. I don't know what it was: not shortness of breath, not heavy legs. Just general I'm-apparently-not-fit-enough-to-do-this-without-short-breaks-every-few-minutes 
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What a fun story! Thanks for the photos! This year I've experienced acclimation sickness while hiking and it is not fun. So many rest stops. That view is very desolate and interesting. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Oh yes, I was so worried about that as well. 4 years ago I was in Addis Abeba to see my favourite Dutch band play (don't ask). The altitude was about 2300-2500m, and I felt really not well the whole time, including pain in the back of my head/neck, and superheavy legs. Here for some reason it worked.
Btw, just for fun I'll upload a few more photos of a 'hike' I did the day before this one. They are less colourful though (and it will take a while as my internet is slow) 0 -
Lava tube complexes on Tenerife (don't do that alone kids, unless you're as crazy as I am)
Entrance of first complex, about 50cm high. I knew core training was good for something.
That's a lavatube from inside:
And that's the ceiling:
a narrow, with tubes branching off above the main tube
and another beautiful tube:
INside the second complex, that was overall lower but had more branching tubes
A big crack in the mainhall
Selfie
And out again with plank walk even though my pants were already very dirty
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And another one I completely forgot to post about. I wanted to take the cable car to the top of El Teide in Tenerife and hike down, but the trip was cancelled due to too strong wind. So on my last day on the island I decided to hike up, from 2257m above sea to 2557m above sea level, 21km up and down in total. It took me 5 hours to get up and 3 down. For some reason I had no problems with the altitude, even though I had problems at just above 2000 in the past. I did not climb the last 150m to the actual crater rim as my peak permit had expired, but I still enjoed this hike.
view from the top
the actual top from the 'top'0 -
Wishing you all the best - we did Ben Nevis a few years ago....by cable car!!! yeah we took the easy way! so hats off you to and hoping all goes great for your hike
Be safe,
Ruth0 -
I didn't have internet for a few days as I spent some time after the hike on the isles, where there's no phone signal. But anyway:
I MADE IT!
It took me 4.5 hours to reach the top, and I was very lucky that the endless flog even lifted for 30 minutes and allowed for some views. Down only took 2.5 hours. I would have managed in 2 hours if my socks had not caused burning to my foot soles and I kind of tip toed down the last 3km. Time for new hiking socks. So happy! Now I can think of other mountains as well.
Yes, it was super tough for me and I was already soaking wet after the first 200m climb (of 1300) but I just walked on very slowly and took breaks whenever I needed them. I found that walking so slowly made me faster in the end than some other slow walkers who sprinted up, totally wrecked themselves and needed a long break very often.
congrats!! of course I only saw your original post so was too late replying!!
Great to hear all went ok - YOU DID IT!
be proud. 0
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