Of Chirripó and Zombies

Monday February 22. (Actually, our climb started at 7:30 the night before.) The trail head is 100m from the hotel. It is dark at 7:30pm, and we tried to be discreet. We turned on our headlamps after we were well away on the trail. The trail switchbacks up through the forest, then along a ridge and into

the trail at km2 (taken the day before)

the park. Hiking with a headlamp the view is of the trail in front of our feet, but the soundscape is immense. We saw fire flies, moths with glow plugs on their foreheads eating the horse dung, various beetles, a leaf impersonator, and one small rodent that scurried across the trail. We heard the din of millions of frogs, cicada, other unidentified insects, and just a couple birds. We passed through a cloud layer that fogged Sharman’s glasses, but it was clear and dry and still quite warm above that. In fact I was still hot and sweating past 10pm, and didn’t cool off enough to add another layer until around 11. The light of the full moon filtered through the canopy: we turned off our headlamps a few times just to see the beautiful light and shadow.

Every kilometer is marked with a post and a name. Some of them have benches. There are also signs with inspirational quotes and aphorisms. The park gate is at kilometer 4. There is a full service shelter at km 7.5, with flush toilets, a spigot with potable water, a horse trough, and--as we discovered on the way down--a little store that sells eight kinds of coffee and tea, candy bars, drugs and first aid supplies. But of course it was closed as we passed by in the night. We made good time for the first eight or so kilometers, but as the altitude increased, I began to slow down. My digestive system

At the park entrance, fresh and enthusiastic

was not happy. We reached 10,00 feet around km 10, and came out of the forest into an open shrubby area and hiked mostly by moonlight after that. There were scattered skeletons of large trees left from a long ago burn. There is a base camp lodge at km 14.5, complete with dorm rooms for 40 people, flush toilets and showers, and full meal service. We hurried by in the dark about 2am. There were a couple lights on and signs that some climbers were getting up for an early start. It is another 5km to the summit.

About 3am we left the trail, put on all our clothes and rain gear, and curled up for an hours’ rest. A few groups of climbers passed by with their headlamps on. This part of the trail has no kilometer markers, but does have good signage at the trail junctions. Though most people are climbing Chiripó, there are several other worthy peaks and lakes in the area. The trail crosses a gentle plain, traverses a slope around a hill, then traverses a pass to climb steeply up the final summit massif. We had extensive vistas in the moonlight. Besides shortness of breath, I was still wrestling with digestive discomfort, plus a touch of asthma, an altitude symptom I

Sunrise

have never experienced before. Slower than ever, I plodded steadily upward. Mike is much faster, but

On the summit

waits for me periodically. The sky was getting lighter. The moon set in the west, the sun rose in the east, and all was well with the world! I finally summited about 6:15am, with warm congratulations from Mike and the half dozen people assembled there. The summit is 3819 m, or 12,529 ft.

We headed down about 6:45am. Although not in our usual form, we are both fast going down, and passed other hikers heading in both directions.  The landscape was either less magical in the daylight or we were too tired to appreciate it. We took an hours’ rest at the lodge and I took off my boots. My feet felt like they had been through a meat tenderizer, and I still had 14.5km to go. My stomach was still queasy, though a visit to the toilet helped. It was warm and sunny at 8:30am and I took a nap under the picnic table.

Our continuing progress down the trail was a blur. We were zombies, the walking dead, going slower and slower. I started to have problems with the chronic tendonitis in my left foot and so was babying

Exiting the park, dog tired

it. We did have a brief respite at the half-way café where we ordered green tea and felt temporarily revived. One aspect of note: we saw lots of birds. We couldn’t identify them without a guide book—expect the humming birds—but we saw them. We arrived back at the hotel about 2pm: 23miles and 9,400 feet of elevation gain (including ups and downs) in 18.5 hours. With little (Sharman) or no (Mike) sleep since 5:30am yesterday. Whew! No wonder we were tired! (But to put it in perspective, a guy from Holland who was on the summit with us did it in six hours up, and the record to the hut is 3 hours and 8 minutes!)

We showered at the hotel then drove a couple kilometers down the road to a restaurant & camp site for a good dinner and a good sleep. We were in bed by 7:30pm and slept 11 hours.