My Story Contest 2: The way to the summit of Humboldt peak

This is my entry for My Story Contest 2

This is without a doubt the best adventure i have done so far, Humboldt peak is located in Mérida state in Venezuela, the summit is at 4,940 meters above sea level. The first time i did this trip was with the trekking group of my university is the graduation for the new members, usually is the first time in our lives we get to see and touch snow

The adventure started at La Mucuy national park on September 27 of 2016, from this very moment an amazing pair of dog joined us, one was a Mucuchies, a dog breed from the region, his name is Humboldt de las Nieves, after getting to the park we pitch up our tents and went to sleep, preparing for the next days of endless walks

The quiet of the nature out here is almost creepy, the horses are pretty active during the night, and their glowing eyes can scare the hell out of you at midnight

I am the cool guy with the camo pants

The first day of walking is the hardest, we started walking at 4:30 or maybe 5 am, the road is a dense and moist tropical forest, so dense that the sun never touch the skin, and the whole way is an endless zigzag, the target destination this day is a lagoon called La Coromoto

The backpack and the ice picks used to stuck in the vegetation every 5 to 10 minutes during the 8 hours travel, it was pretty annoying, most of the plants you grab to avoid falling are filled with spikes, or can cause a strong allergic reaction in the skin

At this point we were half the way, the forest was a little bit more open from here, and we started to see a small but strong river that brings water from the glacier, i was dead tired in the last picture, 4 hours walking almost nonstop, we rested for 20 minutes and ate some fruit

When we were coming back on the last day, the river was strong because of the hard rain of the day before, i was walking my way back to La Mucuy with a friend, and while attempting to jump from a rock in the middle of the river to the other side i fell, while falling i wasn't afraid, i was thinking the river wasn't deep enough, but suddenly i was totally cover in water, the clothes i was wearing were the only dry clothes i had left and the river was dragging me fast, i was too heavy to swim properly, my friend saved my life, the rest of the way i was shaking, and my knee was doing a cracking sound every time i crouch

Is easy to get lost following the river, i got lost in my second trip, one full hour lost in the middle of the dense tropical forest, your mind start to play games with you in this situation

Finally we made it to the lagoon. The lagoon is feeded by water from the glacier, the river is ice cold, and I took the most extreme bath of my life on it before I went to sleep

The next day the way was easier, but was more dangerous, the forest was gone, but this day all the way to the next lagoon is a slope filled with loose rocks, some rocks are wet and at some points you have to climb, or walk with only your fingers grabbing the wall of the mountain

After 8 hours we made it to La Verde lagoon, from here we would start our walk to the summit at 4:00 am

We woke up, it was dark and cold, we dress and wore the safety equipment before starting to walk

The way up was hard, the terrain was sandy 3/4 of the way, for every 3 steps, I was taking 1 step back

Walking early in the morning in a mountain so high is the best experience ever, the darkness let you see the mountains in all their beauty, the cold chilling your bones feels like a sweet painkiller for the mind, here i learned that the best experiences in life are to be found in the hardest and coldest conditions

The first time i saw the glacier up close was almost like magic, first time in my life that i saw snow, it feel like one of those dream that you miss when you wake up, but this dream was real

We made it to the summit, sadly the weather was getting bad and we stayed for no more than 5 minutes, we made it, but the summit is only half of the trip, now we have to come back

I made to the lagoon 12 hours after we left, i was dead tired, i cried out of happiness and nostalgia, knowing that the images of glacier and the summit will always be in my mind

In the night my tent started to fill with water, the rain was hard, but i didn't care, i was tired, and i wanted to sleep all i could, the next day, we would made it to La Mucuy nonstop

A friend was having problems with his shoes since we made it to La Verde, this day his shoes finally surrender to the punishment, but my friend damped with luck found another pair of shoes in the same spot, if this isn't an amazing story to tell, i dont know what it is. After hours i finally made it to La Mucuy

I lost 6.5 kilograms in this trip, in the way back my pants were falling every time, and the rubbing of the pants against the backpack left my waist bleeding badly

We took a video, bad quality, bad music, but you can see it here if you want, i have another blog with a deeper explanation of this trip if you are interested

All the photos were taken by members of my group

Goodbye