Hike in the Andes

A trip to South America would not be complete without a little hiking in the Andes. Last weekend I went to Santiago and joined up with my English friends Laura and Sally. We booked an expensive guided hike to the summit of Mt. Pintor, at 4200 mts—that’s about 13,800 ft. I noticed the altitude in the car on the way up, as I got a little headache. The hike started at a ski resort above Santiago at 3500 meters, but we quickly ascended into the wilderness. It was absolutely disgusting to see the smog filled valley below. The city was not even really visible—just a brown cloud. So it was nice to get some normal fresh air. Plus the weather was excellent—sunny blue skies, but chilly. I could feel the altitude right away, and climbing the very steep slope required what felt like 10 times the effort it would have at sea level. Luckily I was ok and didn’t get sick—neither did Laura or Sally. The views were awesome as we climbed up into a Mars-like terrain where nothing grew and nothing lived. A glacier covered peak well over 5000 meters was staring us right in the face for most of the hike. After about 2.5 hours we reached the summit! It was tiring, but we were all ok, and it felt great to be above the smog and on top of an Andean peak. The wind was tame, which was nice since the temperature was barely above freezing I would guess. The view must be similar to the view on top of Mt. Rainier, since we were almost as high and the city below is only at about 1000 ft. We hiked back exhausted, but feeling good. The car ride back down to very low elevation was ok. I was worried my head would implode, but it didn’t and I suffered a small headache—which is pretty good considering we went from nearly 14000 feet to 1000 in just a few hours. So all in all it was worth it—expensive but worth it.

This is from near the beginning

We climbed the less glaciated one. That's Laura and our guide Juan ahead of me

Us at the top!