Volcán de Fuego and Acatenango 11/11-12/2024
11/11-12/2024
This whole trip started on the 9th with a meeting at the OX expedition headquarters in Antigua. I immediately got bad feelings. They asked us to give them our IDs to hold for the trip for renting gear, Ross and I literally only rented a sleeping bag liner. I was NOT into giving my ID and I almost argued, but no one else seemed to have an issue with it at least it was not my passport, that would have been a hard no. Ross made a comment about the people in the meeting with us, being “its exactly the type of people I’d expect” which he meant Instagram posting 20-year-olds that had to boast about what they have been doing recently. Bad vibes for me, especially after being burned by the Mt. Baker climb. I also got bad vibes from the instructor who was to be our guide because he reminded me of Sam from the Mt Baker climb. This was only my second guided climb ever and with the first one being not so good I did not have high expectations.
Anyways, he ran us through what we needed and what to expect and what things we were going to do each day. He said we could rent a porter for some amount of quetzales which amounted to 25 US dollars, neither one of us was planning on doing that but I admittedly changed my mind by the next day because I wanted the best chance at being able to do all the climbing that was offered and with my recent training, I wasn’t convinced it was going to go so well. The second thing was you’re helping the Guatemalans, you’re paying them and giving them money, employing them I think the word is.
Day 1 11/11/2024
Climb 1: Up to base camp
We met at the OX headquarters at 6:30 AM everyone got their gear, and we had breakfast at Rainbow Café (that was included in the trip price). Also, while I’m thinking about, it the whole trip was 99$ without the hike to Fuego, I didn’t add that on at the time because we could after the fact and I wanted to make sure that I could do it. I had a feeling if I opted out, I would not get my money back. The extra Fuego trip was 30$.
We took a shuttle for about an hour to the trail head, here we picked up the porters and were able to use the bathroom one last time (5Q). Up we went! The guide always told us were going to hike for so and so minutes and then we’ll take a break, this was also broken down with the information in the PDF they gave you when signing up. Gareth, was our guides name and right away I felt comfortable against my feelings the previous day. We also had our local guides Daniel, Solomon, and Jesus? I think? They were also great! The first part of the hike was on a wide loose trail that was a steep grade, from my previous climbing experiences I started with little slow steps and just kept my pace. We lost a couple within the first 10 minutes, and one girl asked for a porter. At the first stop I was feeling great and then I did that thing where I started worrying about Ross and making him do something he might not wanted to do. The first stop was a restaurant that you could drive up to and I think people also started the climb here too. We regrouped and started off again, this time the trail was wide enough for 2 people with barbed wire on one side, we constantly were passing people coming down and it was slow going. Some people in my group were slipping on the loose rock. I do not know if it was because they were in tennis shoes or they were not used to this type of hiking. Trail shoes or boots, for sure on this. Gareth gave us really great time frames, he would tell us ok, half hour to the next spot (we usually made it there before that) but it was nice to have the hike broken up like that. He was from Whales and he loved saying cheeky, “cheeky little coffee” “a couple cheeky little hills”. There were two places we had to pay for entrance, both were 50Q. There were also places to buy snacks or drinks but they shouldn’t be relied on to be there all the time. There was also one place that had coffee and it was great, the Guatemalan coffee was really tasty.
I found that I was passing people, I usually put myself in the back of the pack, I’ve always been a back of the packer. With this group I was doing better and ended up being mid to front pack. But this group wasn’t all trained climbers, most were more “oh, there’s a volcano erupting I want to go see it and blog about it and put it on TikTok”. Granted, I saw it on TikTok first and that is one of the reasons we were here but, lol, whatever I can’t say anything about that…. The whole time we were hiking it was windy and overcast and we had a great view of the inside of a cloud, I was super worried about not having any views. We got to our lunch spot at about 3 miles in or so, they provided lunches and the best way to describe it was like a handheld calzone, it was amazing. We chilled for about a half hour and continued with the traverse. This was mostly flat with some “cheeky little” hills for about a mile.
The 33 of us got to camp and reconvened this was almost a 4000 ft hike, I was proud of everyone for making it up, it looked like the clouds were going to blow away and finally we got some views of Fuego and a couple eruptions. It was unreal, this is the second time I’ve seen a volcano erupt in person and its one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen. Right at that moment, you are witnessing the newest part of the earth being formed. The camp was set up with a central hut with a kitchen and tables and to the right and left were wooden cabins that slept 5, they did provide sleeping mats and bags as well. There were two bathrooms, like outhouses or pit toilets, that were disgusting. Actually, speaking of which, all the bathrooms on the way up were disgusting, pee and whatever else all over the seats because people would just squat… Sit down mother fuckers! I peed outside for the most part well away from anything, good thing I didn’t have to poop on this trip.
Climb 2: To Fuego
We had about an hour at camp before we were going to start the trek to the Fuego viewing point. Ross and I immediately decided that we were going to go over there. Out of the 31 of us I think there was 23 who went. We started out leaving from camp about 3:30 PM the trail was pretty steep down, and it was loose! I was fine with it, down is my jam specially after all the trail running practice I’ve had, just gotta go for it! The slower more tentative you go the more chances you’re going to land on your ass. Gareth pointed out a spot in a valley where you could see that there was some debris flow before, that during a storm a guide took people over to Fuego and they got swept away, two were recovered and one died. When I was researching this trip I did read about some deaths, it’s a mountain, let alone an active volcano, people are going to die. But, they shouldn’t if you have an experienced guide. Gareth explained that there are some people who book through the hostels or hotels and the hire “guides” who really aren’t experienced. Just be careful when looking, do the research.
Down at the saddle we took a break and the accent looked pretty ominous, it was straight up. We took it in 5-6 minute increments and stopped for 3-4 after doing this 5 times we were there. Annnnnnnd it was cloudy again and super windy. So happy I bought my Mountain Hardwear belay jacket, this was perfect! Eventually the clouds blew away and we got some great views of some eruptions. We turned around to go back way too soon and I wish we were there for another hour, or longer than that. On the way back we passed a ton of people coming up and it was very confusing but we did make it back to camp. We had spaghetti dinner and people started to knock off. We had picked up one of the dogs on the way up named Dusty and he stayed by the fire all night. Gareth said that he would eventually end up lying in the fire and he’s had to pull him out before, lol. I really hated seeing the dogs all over Guatemala, I knew some of them were pets but not on the mountain they just lived by going to camps and begging for food, ugh and we’re done thinking about that. I ended up trying to lay down and go to sleep but I couldn’t and Ross of course took like 20 minutes making noise while everyone else was trying to sleep. I eventually got back up and sat by the fire watching the volcano erupt, here were some of the best lava views while we were there, I wish we would have gotten out the tripod and got better photos but sometimes it’s better to just watch and enjoy.
Day 2 11/12/2024
Climb 1: Acatenango Summit
I don’t think I slept, I might have fallen asleep for a couple minutes here or there? My altitude problem ended up being super gassy, like it wouldn’t stop! I think only one person got truly sick and I don’t know if it was sickness or she just pushed herself too hard during the day and that was part of it too. Gareth came around and woke us up at 3:20 AM, I was going back and forth on going up to the summit of Acatenago or not because I was exhausted. But, I got up and I was going to try, I wasn’t sleeping anyways!
We started out on the same chossy trails I was getting super tired! We walked for about 20 minutes to start out, OX camp is the lowest camp and we needed to get up and going so we didn’t keep running into more camps starting. After the first break, I thought I was going to turn around and I realized I was two people away from Daniel who was leading and I did not have to go that fast! When we started again, I put myself in the back and it was still hard but much more manageable. I did get irritated with the people and their sneakers again, sliding all over the place, messing up my groove. With the people going on this trip, from all over and all different levels of experience, there was not a lot of trail awareness and courtesy. The top was basically a crater and we were on the rim, they do have a challenge if you can run around the rim in under 5 minutes you get a tank shirt thing. Its half a mile, nobody did it.
There were probably 200 people up at the top watching the sunrise. I got a handstand it and some great pictures and then we headed back. On the way down we slid/ski/ran down the super sandy loose parts and it was a blast! But we had to wait for the people who were too tentative. Finally, no more elevation!
Back at camp we backed up quickly, had breakfast and started out. Down was uneventful expect that it took forever. People were falling all over, I fell running past people, I think I ended up running the last half mile and it was way better than trying to slip down everything.
I’ll probably think of more things to say about this trip eventually and I will edit but this is it for now. I read a lot of really bad, don’t do this reviews. I never once felt unsafe with OX, I never felt rushed or pushed or put down in anyway based on my hiking abilities. But, this is an active volcano the risks are real. The risks mountaineering are also real.