Climbing El Teide

Hey everyone!
On the 21st of November we started our trip up the El Teide in our “sexy climbing shoes”. The night before this most of us packed our bags. With us we were supposed to take our sleeping bag, warm clothing, sun cream, and other stuff necessary for climbing a mountain and sleeping in a mountain hostel. All of which we had to carry up the volcano and back down.
The day we started with our climb, we woke up at 7:15 so we could have breakfast and then take the bus to where we were going to start our climb. On our way to the path we stopped at our supermarket to buy what was necessary for the next two days. Another girl and I went along in the supermarket and helped buy the items. For the two days we got three baguettes, two bananas, an orange, a small package of cookies, and some people took along some spreads for on the bread, mainly chocolate spread. However, since I have allergies for hazelnuts I usually ended up eating the bread without anything on it. Though for dinner, we did have soup.
I had expected the climb to the top to be quite easy since I have gone mountain climbing before and usually didn’t have any problems. In addition, the climb was supposed to take about 2 ½ hours which compared to other climbs I have done before is definitely not long. However, the climb was quite the contrary. In the beginning it was quite easy. There was a dirt road that was not flat, but also not very steep. The heat and especially the backpack did make the climb up a lot harder.
After the sort of dirt road, was a split in roads. It looked as if we were supposed to go to the left but many thought we should go to the right. We decided that they would come out at the same place, so I went left along with another girl and to guys. After we walked for about 10 minutes we saw that this path was not going to bring us where we wanted to go. Of course the guys came with the brilliant idea to take a “shortcut” and climb off path over stones back to the other path. This brilliant idea turned out to be not so brilliant. Climbing on stones with a big backpack is not so easy but the adventure was fun.
When we finally after about 30 minutes of climbing reached the right path we got a mini lesson about the volcano and its rocks. I found this really interesting, which is quite funny because usually volcanoes and rocks don’t really interest me. However, I think that since we could actually see what we were learning everything became instantly more interesting. During the lesson we also had lunch.
After the lunch and lesson came the hardest bit of the climb. The path was quite steep and the amount of oxygen started getting less and less. However, I didn’t feel like taking too many stops and neither did the girl I was walking with. Together, we reached the refugio as the first girls and also overall as one of the first. I am quite proud of myself because even though I had a tough time, I pushed through till the end and didn’t slack off. It took me about 3 hours and a bit.
Of course the climb wasn’t over. After dinner, which was the soup we bought, we went to bed. 14 out of the 20 girls slept in the same room which could have been a lot of fun. However, since we had to wake up at 4 a.m. the next morning we decided it was a better idea to get ourselves some sleep. I think everybody was happy they did that because the next day was quite tiring. At 4 a.m. we were woken up. Everybody put on as many layers as we could because the top, which is about 3,000 meters high, was going to be quite cold. Of course I couldn’t exactly take a jacket with me since it would take up too much space. However, with a legging, jeans, thick socks, a tank top, t-shirt, two sweaters, hat, and scarf I started the climb up to the top of the volcano.
We left in three groups; I left with the 5:00 a.m. group. It was pitch dark outside so we had to find our way up with the flashlight. Sadly for me my flashlight ran out of battery about 30 minutes into the walk. First we had to walk one hour to the gondola and for those who couldn’t go any further they could stay there and after that we had to walk another hour to the top of the mountain. The first hour felt like it took forever. At the gondola we stopped and lied in our sleeping bags, waiting for someone to tell us where to go. Then most of us climbed to the top. This climb seemed as if it took half an hour. However, when we got to the top we had to wait for the sun to come up which, by the way, was the reason why we woke up so early. At the top it was unbelievably cold. I think it was about -4, but it felt like -10. We all tried to sit as out of the wind as possible and as close to each other as possible. All warmth was welcome. The sun coming up was quite beautiful, especially with the clouds hanging below the mountain. It seemed as if you were in an airplane. The only difference was that in the airplane you don’t usually have it so cold that you can barely move your fingers. We decided it was probably best to walk down as fast as possible.
When we arrived back at the gondola, almost everybody took out their sleeping bags and lied inside them, trying to restore our body heat. We also celebrated one guy’s birthday with chocolate which we had also bought in the supermarket. In our sleeping bags we laid there for about 45 minutes until the teachers decided it was perhaps a good idea to go back down. We were forced out of the warmth of our sleeping back and had to walk back down the mountain.
The walk down was quite easy and entertaining since the path was covered with rocks. However, my ankles didn’t really enjoy the rocks. I went through my ankles a couple of times and at the end of the walk they really started to hurt. After the rocky path there was a sandy path, but this one didn’t last long. We went back to a sort of rocky path where we passed a crater, which was really cool to see.
At this point it was time for lunch and the only thing I had left over was a baguette. This is not exactly the best thing to eat when you are really thirsty but are trying to save your water. Either way, it was better than nothing. After lunch there was a path in the volcanic ash which was quite entertaining. You took one step and slid down another 30 cm, so half the effort wasn’t even yours.
We were supposed to take path 9 but after awhile we only saw signs for path 28. Path nine had suddenly disappeared. Turns out path 9 doesn’t exist anymore. We decided it was probably best to just follow path 28. Now, back on the rocky path everybody was extremely tired of walking. The landscape was getting quite boring. It was rock, bush, rock, bush, rocks, rocks, more bushes. It never ended. Luckily for us, when things go bad we just laugh about it. Two of the guys decided to give a tour about the volcano. It went a little bit like this “On your left hand side you see bush number 1028; it’s the update of the bush you previously saw”. At one point I was laughing so hard I couldn’t properly walk anymore.
After 16 km of walking downhill we finally reached the end of the path. I haven’t been so tired of walking in a couple of years. Nevertheless, I am extremely happy that I reached the top and went back all the way to the bottom.
- Meilin