Climbing Tajumulco, the highest point in Central America

Since finding out that Tajumulco, the highest point in Central America, is in Guatemala (and two hours from my house), it's been a dormant goal of mine to climb it sometime during my service. Sometime, meaning, when I was in better shape, when I had climbed lots of other mountains/volcanoes, when I had adequate time to mentally prepare myself for the task of climbing this huge thing, etc. But last week a fellow volunteer friend called me up asking if I wanted to climb it with her and a group of other volunteers, and not wanting to miss my chance, I said something along the lines of "why of course, I would love to spend this weekend in exhilarating pain, mental humiliation, and bone-chilling freezing temperatures." (Actually I just said yes.) So Saturday morning a group of us headed out from my house, tents and several pounds of granola bars in tow, and commenced our trip to the (extinct) volcano.

Our hiking group - six Peace Corps volunteers, Luna the dog, and three California Park
Rangers/experienced mountain hikers/our unofficial guides.

View from the bottom

It turns out I didn't die. Although the ~20 pound backpack that I lugged up didn't exactly make the hike easy, it turns out that there were only a few sections of really steep terrain, with the rest of the trip being a relatively shallow incline. And I was not at all humiliated, as I somehow managed to sometimes keep up a faster pace than some of my fellow hikers. We also we weren't in any hurry to get to the top, taking several 15-20 minute breaks along the way. 

(click on the pictures to make them bigger)

We arrived at our camping destination in just under 5 hours on the first day, then woke up early the next morning to hike up the rest of the way to the top to see the sunrise. This was the hardest part of the trip, as it was the steepest climb (more of a on-all-fours crawl in my case), it was freezing cold (6 layers of shirts was not enough), and the altitude had finally gotten high enough where I was feeling dizzy after every few steps (although I think living at 7,500 feet for the last 9 months has slightly acclimated me to high altitudes, as many people notice the reduced amount of oxygen earlier in the trip). 

Even though I felt like a breathing icicle when I finally got to the top, the view was absolutely worth it. Almost every volcano in Guatemala is visible from the top, all lined up along their volcanic ridge. You can see Mexico only 10 miles away, and the ocean would have been visible if not for the clouds. Unfortunately I accidentally had my camera on a weird setting (ISO stuck at 1600) so some of the pictures didn't come out as nice as I had hoped, but of course the best images are in my memory.

The volcanoes furthest to the left are near a city called Antigua, which is about a 6 hour trip from my town

Taking in the view (these smart people brought their sleeping bags up to the summit)

Not my picture

On the way down - again, not my picture

Some stats: We hiked a total of 1189 meters/3900 feet/3.5 miles on the way up. The volcano is 4220 meters/13,845 feet above sea level. It is the 356th highest mountain in the world in terms of altitude above sea level, but it is the 24th most prominent peak (prominence is the altitude compared to surrounding terrain, if I understand it correctly, meaning that Tajumulco is not near any other major peaks or high grounds).

Somehow, even though I could barely walk the day after climbing a much smaller volcano, I was barely sore in the few days after climbing Tajumulco. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure won't be climbing it again any time soon!