Misti II

Wow, that was one long, exciting day! After a short breakfast we left the camp without the camping gear at 2:20am with our head torches and a lot of motivation. We had 1300m to climb up and had a good pace, everyone in a good shape. We made breaks every hour, sunrise was soon and the shadow of Misti looked like a pyramid over Arequipa, beautiful! At around 5500m we had to put on our crampons and take our ice picks since we had some ice/snow fields ahead. After a very steep crossing we arrived at the border of the crater and had still about 150m to go up. That's when I started to feel a bit nauseous and very tired. Lack of oxygen and a bit of altitude sickness, I thought. It went through my head of stopping here and not going to the top but hey, as Marcos said, once in a lifetime, right? And there is my head, whenI want something, well, I thought, das geit de scho. So we continued the last, again very steep bit to the top. Oh dear, that cross didn't and didn't get closer. I don't really know how I did the last steps in the sand but the I was there. What a view at more then 5800m!
Because I felt worse (what a suprise...) I just sat down and concentrated on breathing. I took only a couple of pictures and was happy to get down quite soon. I got a bit worried, we had in total 2400m to go down, first crossing again this very steep ice field. Well, it wasn't fun, defenitely not the best moment of my trip but we made it safely to a place where we would take an alternative route down, or a short cut, as our guide said. And I think that saved my whole day. We could slide down the sand, making lot's of meters in a short time. We arrived at base camp at around noon, the others had diner, I took a nap, still feeling so weak, tired and nauseous. You are of no use in this state, couldn't help the others taking the tent down. My companions were great, all not affected by the altitude, helped me with water, carrying things and gave me big big moral support. Chantal offered me a peach juice which I could drink and keep because, yes vomiting was also involved in the whole thing just to loose all dignity up there. So that was the first sugar in 10hours, gave me the kick and zagg, I was almost back to normal. The way down was again sand sliding, very funny. We arrived at the parking lot around 3:30pm, put all the luggage on the roof, sat in the car and it broke down. So we had to wait for another one to pick us up. That made me arrive at the hotel way later then expected. I had diner at Marcos, said ciao to him and his family and went to bed early without packing anything for tomorrow. What a day! I am so greatful everything went well and I am so looking forward to see Sophie again for our road trip in California!Read more