Thankfully we didn’t have to start from the city square and climb all that elevation gain. We had great guides who drove us to the backside, which was about 12,000 ft. Straight out of the gate we all noticed a huge storm rolling in and Heather and I were having flashbacks of the time we almost got struck by lightning hiking in Colorado. We all started praying as the guide pushed on to our base camp. It was as if God put a window of sunshine and blue sky only over our small party. We could hear thunder coming from behind us getting closer while simultaneously a huge black cloud was coming at us from the front. Heather and I didn’t get any pictures of this because the guide told us to turn off our phones because we would have a better chance of not being struck by lightning. We are not sure if that was true or not, but we definitely turned off our phones.
We then ascended to nearly 14,000 ft, had enough time to set up our tents before the rain, snow and sleet came. At camp, our guides made a nice dinner of tuna, spaghetti and coca tea, which is supposed to help with altitude (the tea not the tuna). After dinner, our guide told us some pretty amazing stories of himself in his younger years. Treasure hunting for Inca artifacts and even finding frozen Inca mummies that were sacrificed to the gods. He was a part of the expedition that found the most famous Peruvian Mummy, Juanita. I could have listened to his stories all night but he sent us to bed at around 8 pm because we had to wake up at 12 am to get ready for our big push to the summit.
We started our midnight accent with the aid of a nearly full moon. It was so bright that we hardly used our headlamps. The way the moon lit up the earth was something I hope I never forget because it was impossible to get a photo. The snow and sleet that had fallen the afternoon before reflected the moon and we could see every neighboring peak for miles.
At those early morning hours, you feel like time is sleeping with everyone else back in the warm city. What felt like 12 hours only being about 5 hours the sun finally came up. There were scattered clouds in the distance which exploded with color when the sun hit them. The sun peaked through the wispy clouds and it was some very welcoming warmth. We all sat down in the beautiful morning sun and let it warm us. It was so beautiful there, most of us would have been fine if we would have had to turn around. BUT WE DIDN’T. God had sent us another blessing, even to the surprise of the guides, the clouds were not collecting, in fact, they were clearing ensuring our experienced guides and our weary group that it was simply up to how bad we wanted to make it the top. God handed us clear weather, now we just needed to put one heavy foot in front of the other. At this point, I believe Heather was the only one who seemed to be having no issues with the altitude. I had developed a minor headache and some of the other group of 6 were experiencing varying levels of sleep deprivation, altitude sickness, and of course normal exhaustion you get from hiking for over 5 hours. Our group was made up of 5 gringos from the church and our Peruvian cousin Vlady. Sadly our cousin Vlady was experiencing some issues with his shoes hurting his feet and decided that he would not be going to the top.
I want to take a minute and complement cousin Vlady. We all saw, including Vlady, early on that his shoes were going to give him trouble. But he blew us away by his amazing attitude through the whole ordeal. I love to hike, run, camp, bike, all things big mountains. I am challenged and sad to say that if I would have had the same issue with my feet I think I would have been way more upset because how bad I wanted to reach the summit. If I would not have expressed it outwardly I would for sure have been beating myself up on the inside. Whenever he would catch up with us or if we went to check on him he would smile at us and laugh a bit. But we all could feel his peace. It was a great testimony and lesson that I appreciated even more than reaching the summit.
The last 500 ft or so was torture for a combination of reason. 1st I thought that Misti was only 18,000 ft, not 19,000ft so when Corey was updating me on our altitude I thought his instruments were wrong. 2nd it was pretty cold. The wind was probably a solid 25mph, whipping fresh snow in our faces. 3rd I thought the guide in front of us was passing gas but it turned out to be the smell of sulfur from the active volcano we were currently climbing. And finally the never-ending switchbacks near the top. A large metal cross stands on the summit and after 4 or 5 switchbacks I would expect the cross to be closer. Even moving consistently it felt like it would not get closer. It was obviously our mind playing tricks on us at high altitude but we eventually crested the final hill and were able to gaze down at the giant crater of the active volcano we had just climbed.
What a perfect day it had become. Climbing the backside and with news of clouds and storms, we were all preparing ourselves not to have much of a view from the top. God let us have our cake and eat it too. The 360-degree view was spectacular. We had a perfect view of the city to the east and we believe we even saw the Pacific Ocean about 60 miles away. To the south we had a nice view of one of the snow-covered extinct volcanos named Pichu Pichu. To the west the seemingly never-ending valleys and peaks of Peru’s southern Andes. Finally, to the north Chachani Volcano looking down on us from her 19,931 ft snow-covered peak, and just beyond that about 30 miles was the old faithful of Peru, Sabancaya, an active Volcano spitting huge clouds of smoke and ash into the sky and we were told it does it nearly every 30 minutes.
When we were back at school on Monday our teacher, Litos, said that he had a test question and from this one question he would be able to tell how our experience was. He asked would you do it again? The normal answer for most of the students at the institute and even his answer one day after was, “absolutely not ever again, I never want to see Misti much less a pair of hiking boots again”. But he knew we had a good time because our answer was DEFINITELY we would do it again. Maybe we will get a chance to hike Misti’s big sister Chachani in the future!!!!