Cerro Chirripó, Costa Rica, Mar 2nd

Cerro Chirripó, at 12500’ is the tallest peak in the Talamanca mountain range in Costa Rica. Its name is also the name of the National park where it’s located. I didn’t know anything about this peak or area until someone recommended me checking it out if I ever went back to Costa Rica. So I did and decided to give it a try and climb it. Getting there and getting permits was half the adventure as I wrote in my last entry about the Cloudbridge Preserve. While getting the permits though, I meet a nice bunch of people that, as me, where climbing up on Sunday. With Kurt and Ann, we planned to hit the trail very early to avoid the heat on the first part of the hard climb.

Day 1: Hike to Base Crestones

By 5:30 AM we were standing at the trailhead ready to head up. Most of the views I had seen the day before when I explored the Cloudbridge Reserve. The main difference was the sun starting to appear over the ridge and slowly painting the hills in bright yellow. There was a tiny bit of haze which added a nice touch to some of the pictures I took from the first ridge. At about midmorning we got to the park entrance just a bit above the turn off trail for the Mountain trail that I had taken the day before. We took a short break to take pictures and then continued on walking thru a dense rainforest. There were no views other than tall trees and incredible forest accompanied by the sound of birds.
As we climbed we found that every single kilometer section of trail has a different name that, in a way, tells you what’s coming… and also the distance and elevation which was nice to a certain extend (it’s good to know how much you’ve done but not as much to know what’s up ahead). Nearly at noon we reached the roughly halfway point of the trail at Llano Bonito. At that point there’s an unoccupied lodge with bathrooms and running water that serves as a rest stop for hikers. We stopped there to get a bite to eat, stretch a bit and refill our water before continuing. By then the day was getting pretty hot. From there we started climbing, and climbing and climbing. We left the dense forest behind and came to more openings and certainly not as tall trees as before. The shade was gone and the views were in. Behind us we could see we were roughly at cloud level and the view behind us was beautiful. At some point we could see what looked like the end of the long climb and some dead/burned logs.

Close to "Los Quemados"
When we got to that turn we finally got the first clear view of Cerro Crestones in the other side of the valley. The trail leveled up a bit and we started walking thru some fog. We reached Km 11th where the trail changes name to “Los Quemados”. They translated that to “the burns” although it would be more appropriate to call it “The Burned”. This section is a high plateau at over 10000’ where a big fire left a ghost forest. Below the tall grey and black trunks dense low vegetation covers the hills. That mixed with the fog was just fantastic. We also felt pretty good thinking that, if we were already above 10000’ we were almost done with the climbing… no such luck. The trail topped at a rest stop that looked more like a bus stop than anything else. Views were magnificent but the trail ahead looked to be far down from where we were. So for the next Kilometer or so, we just went down. When we reached “El Jardin”, de garden, we realized we had descended about 2000’ which meant we had a lot to climb to get to Crestones. We passed the last water source that we found almost dry and continued on probably the hardest part of the trail. I didn’t take a picture of the sign but if I recall correctly, that section is called “Los Arrepentidos”, the repentant. Quite proper for what was ahead. From there the trail was almost like a desert. Dry and dusty and the vegetation was even lower than before. With the beating sun on top of us, it took a while to regain the 2000’ we had lost descending to the garden and then continue climbing to get to Base Crestones. Besides the amazing views towards Crestones and
Cerro Crestones from the trail
some pretty clouds flying over it, the other companion we got on the trail was a lot of green lizards. One final turn and we got to a bench that overlooks the entire valley where the lodge is located. It was a wonderful sight to see finally our destination. Once there, we were greeted by the park ranger who wanted to show us to our room. Ann was feeling a bit dizzy so she stayed outside having a bite while Kurt and I took the pack upstairs. As you might suspect, being above 11000’ makes it a bit difficult with the oxygen and all that. I was already having trouble breathing and was feeling the elevation on every step I took, but climbing those stairs in the lodge was probably the hardest thing in the entire day. Not only I had to stop half way up to catch my breath, but once I got to the top, I almost fell backwards being dizzy. It truly felt as I had taken a couple of tequila shots. My legs were like Jell-O. So I dropped my bag, grabbed my food and went downstairs and out to eat.

Side trip to Cerro Ventizquero

After resting for quite a while and still having plenty of afternoon left, we talked about going for a short hike. I had thought about it and by looking at the different options, I had thought of going to Lake Dikevi as that route was roughly level. I was pretty much done with climbing for the day. Kurt and Ann suggested we instead went up to Cerro Ventizquero. I didn’t check distance or elevation and thinking it wasn’t going to be too bad I went with them. The first portion of the trail was the same route we needed to take to hike towards Cerro Chirripó, or destination for day 2, but shortly after leaving base camp, we turn left at a sign and started climbing again. From our point of view on the trail, it looked like we were just climbing a small hill but as we gained elevation, the surrounding hills and everything else was left below. At some point I turned around and realized I was looking straight at the rock formation of Cerro Crestones across the valley. We were pretty high. Ahead of us, just the same hill and some hint of clouds on the other side.
No small hill - Cerro Ventizquero on the left
As the day was starting to fade away, at some point the sun dropped behind the ridge we could see and temperature dropped a bit. Huffing, puffing and out of air we continued and finally, almost to the point of fainting, I saw Kurt and Ann at the top. It was so close so I continued just to realize were not yet there. We were standing on the south side of a saddle with Cerro Ventizquero on the other side. It wasn’t much higher than where we were but we needed to descend a bit and then climb again. The descend made me feel really good and helped me catch my breath – with the little oxygen available that is. But all that weird altitude sickness feeling was masked by the incredible scenery ahead of me. The little clouds I saw when climbing were just the top of a sea of clouds that was being stopped by the ridge line. It looked like the sea beating on the shore with huge splashes.

From the saddle en route to Cerro Ventizquero
Around us we could see all the peaks in the plateau including Cerro Chirripó on the other side of the valley and above Lake Chirripó. As we continued towards Cerro Ventizquero, the sun finally hid behind the clouds statring an amazing sunset. Behind us, clouds far in the distance started changing color from white to yellow to orange. The sky in turn started changing from blue to violet and getting darker. I don’t recall at what point I got to the summit but we stayed there for the rest of the spectacle. Once it started to get darker, we decided to head back to camp. From the saddle I took the last picture of the day when the last bit of color was still there and the moon was showing her face up in the sky.

Final shot of the day
The rest of the hike back was in the dark under the bright light of my headlamp. Back at camp, with sore legs and before going to sleep I decided to check my GPS for stats and realized that this was certainly not the longest hike I’ve ever done, but I do believe at about 8000’ is certainly the most elevation gain I’ve done in a day. It felt painfully good

Day 2: Cerro Chirripó summit and hike out

As almost everyone else, we wanted to check the sunrise from the summit of Cerro Chirripó. With that in mind, we were up and ready to go at around 4 in the morning. My legs were sore and I was a bit tired but it was the last day. I was ready for that final push. Most of the hike was in complete darkness so there was not much to see but we did notice that sun was going to be up before we got to the summit.
Sun rissing
Somewhere along the route we stopped and I took a couple of pictures as the first rays illuminated the clouds above us. The whole sky was a very dark purple and only a single bright yellow/orange in the horizon indicating it was about to be morning. With a bit more light we saw that day was not going to be clear and spectacular as the previous day, but we pushed on. The sky turned pink and finally the first rays hit the mountains and illuminated everything. By then I was feeling like crap. I think elevation was getting to me as I started with a weird cough and my stomach was not very good. Right before we started the final ascend to the summit we saw the rest of the people from the previous day coming down already. We had missed the sunset although we knew it was not as spectacular as it can be. When we got to the top, there was little sun left to be seen. The sun quickly went over the clouds and the day turns into a dull grey color. Views were still pretty impressive but not as much as the views we got from the top of Cerro Ventizqueros.
Las Morrenas from Cerro Chirripo
After a while we started our hike back down and once we got to the multiway split we said our goodbyes with Kurt an Ann. Since they were staying an extra day they took the route around Cerro Crestones back to camp. I in the other hand went straight to base camp to grab a bite, rest a bit while I packed my gear and start the long hike down.
The rest of the day was just long and hard. If the climb was exhausting, I can say the second day, was even worse. Most of the hike was inside the clouds which to a point was a good thing as it kept the temperature at bay.
Hiking in the clouds
The more I descended, the better I felt and the weird cough went away, but in that same sense, my feet started to hurt. The last 3 or 4 Kilometers were almost a torture. I do recall stopping several times to rest my feet before continuing down. The only thing I could think of was taking my shoes of and dumping my feet in cold water which I did as soon as I got to the hostel. But it was worth it.


You can check the pictures here



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Cloudbridge Reserve, Costa Rica, Mar 1st



About a year or so ago I taught a Spanish class here at work. One of the guys that came to that class was from Costa Rica and talking about hiking and outdoor activities, he recommended me to visit Cerro Chirripo if I ever went to Costa Rica. Talking about best times to do it, he mentioned end of February – beginning of March is usually the best time as it doesn’t rain as much. As I always do, I took note of all that info and saved it. Lucky me, this year I had to go to Costa Rica for work and it was by the end of February. So with some planning I took a couple days of to head to Cerro Chirripo with the original intention of backpacking three days and summiting the mountain. While planning I learned that they issue about 40 permits per day. 30 of those can be reserved and the rest are first come - first served. Unfortunately my planning was late so I didn’t get to reserve in advanced. Still, being adventurous (and hopeful) I decided to try my luck and head south to San Gerardo Rivas and try my luck. The worst that could happen was that I was going to spend a couple of days hiking in the area. With that in mind I did some research and learned about the Cloudbridge Reserve, a privately protected area adjacent to Cerro Chirripo National Park. So after my work was done in San Jose, early on Friday morning I got on a bus to San Isidro del General and from there I took a 4x4 taxi to San Gerardo. My first stop there was at the ranger station to check for tickets for Cerro Chirripo. I was told they had 8 tickets available for Sunday but that to get those, I would have to get to the park office very early or even consider sleeping outside. That afternoon I checked at the Hostel, had dinner and went to sleep early to have a really early start.

The following day I woke up at 3AM, got dressed and hiked about a mile down to the park offices were I found a group of people already waiting. I was told then that my chances were not very good but I decided to stay and see. While waiting one girl left which increased my chances just a bit and then, about half an hour before the office opened, another couple left. Long story short, I got in and got one of the last permits for Sunday. I was stocked. One of the guys there gave me a ride back up to the Hostel and after breakfast (and a little bit of celebration) I got ready and went out to explore the Cloudbridge Reserve

Cerro Chirripo trailhead
The hike started on the same trail that goes to Cerro Chirripo. The first mile or so is an arduous hot climb on super compacted soil. If it wasn’t for nice valley and forest views, I couldn’t say it’s very enjoyable but then I got to the first ridge where everything changed a bit. I got views of the valley ahead and the weather got a bit cooler. At some point I found the entrance to Sendero Montaña, the point where I left the main Cerro Chirripo trail and got in the dense forest. Little I knew that this trail was going to be a fully forested, not often traversed, steep downhill. It reminded me of some trails, if we can call them that, back in Cerro Avila in Venezuela. The forest was incredibly beautiful with huge trees, bamboo and vines all over the place. Even though I didn’t see wildlife, other than birds, I could swear I could feel eyes looking at me.

Mountain Trail... can you see it?
After a while I finally reached the Cloudbridge main trail. At that point I didn’t have much of a plan but wanted to try to do the entire park. So at that point, instead of turning left and doing the official long loop, I turned right and headed for the longer, all trails included loop. I had a long day ahead of me. The first stop was at Caldera waterfall. I must say that, after the waterfalls here at home, you need to see more water or higher to be impressed. From there I crossed the Chirripo River and was presented with two options again. As before, I choose the longer one and headed uphill on the Quetzal trail towards Don Victor waterfall. That part of the hike was on an exposed trail beaten by inclement sun. Yes, it was hot. Luckily it wasn’t too long and before I knew it, I was back in the shade.

The Quetzal trail
 The trail turned into a canyon and then a river. That’s when I realized that, to continue I needed to ford the river. This time of year, with little or no rain, that wasn’t much of a problem. On the other side I found the waterfall and decided to stop there for lunch while I soaked my feet in cold river water.
Coming down from there was an adventure in itself. The whole time I was waiting for Tarzan or some monkey to swing by. It didn’t happen, but that gives you an idea of how it was. Finally down I had a couple smaller loops to do. The first one was the river trail which doesn’t go close enough to the river even though you can hear it all the time. At some point I passed a viewpoint for Cloudbridge waterfall and noticed a side trail that probably went there. I did explore a bit but was not able to get closer. Then thunder stroke. I didn’t know if we had chances of rain or not but that sound was enough for me to start thinking about speeding my pace a bit. I got to a clearing were I could see the entire valley and noticed that, even though I was still hearing thunder in the distance, the clouds didn’t look too menacing. So, instead of going straight down, I took the waterfalls trail to complete the loop. This trail is very easy and short and goes thru three or four waterfalls.
Pacifica Waterfall
One of those is Pacifica waterfall. By far the most beautiful fall in the park. I took some time there to admire it and take a lot of pictures before heading out of the park and then walking the road back to the Hostel. After a nice shower, I made some diner, got my gear ready and went to sleep early for an early start the next day



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