Climbing Acatenango

Acatenanago is the second highest peak to Tajumulco (4220 m) in all of Central America standing at 3976 m. When in Guatemala there are so many volcanos to hike you could just spend two to three weeks hiking volcano after volcano. Acatenango is THE volcano to hike when visiting Antigua due to the base being only a 30 minute drive from the city. The hike is a two day one night hike where you set off in the morning from Antigua, arrive to base camp which is typically 1-2 hours from the summit, spend the night the camping at base camp and then hike up to the summit early for sunrise before descending.

I had been recommended by several travellers I met along the way to book through Soy tours. They are definitely one of the cheaper tours and one of the better from what I heard from other people’s experiences. The tour including the entrance fee for the volcano was 350 Q (€37) which included all food, accommodation for the night, transport to and from your hostel in Antigua, guides and cold weather equipment/clothes. I had been warned it is extremely cold at the summit and at base camp so to pack plenty of layers. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the weather at base camp and the summit the following morning but I won’t dwell on it too long as we were just really unlucky with the weather and people who had gone a few days after or a few days before had magnificent weather whilst we were wondering how close were we to getting frost bite.

We left Antigua at 7.45am and headed in a mini van to Gullimore Soy`s house to meet the other hikers in the group and to get our lunch and stock up on warm clothes. Casa Soy had plenty of jackets, backpacks, gloves, scarfs and hats to borrow. I had my own but I borrowed two extra jackets. I swear I was born in the wrong country, I’m not made for winter. I borrowed a rucksack too and was also glad of that, everything gets filthy and destroyed with the volcano pic ash and dust so taking one of their backpacks rather than ruining your own is a good shout. Another thing I rented off them for 5 Q was a walking pole. Definitely take a walking pole, it’s very slipping on the way down and on the way up it can be hard to get your footing as its all shale that just falls away.
After we had coats and hats coming out our ears we got onto the bus to bring us to the base to begin the hike.

I’m quite used to hiking,running and general things fitness and I found the first hour very tough. It’s very steep and the ground falls away from you each time to try to take a step. It’s pretty much three hours of steep uphill, then it levels off slightly. In total it took just over four and a half hours to get to base camp with a half hour break for lunch in the middle.

It’s quickly gets cold and from the half way point you don’t know whether to layer up when your standing around or stay in the tank top as the sweat will be rolling off within two minutes of starting off again.

We made it to the base camp with the wind beating against us and the tents and I quickly realised they weren’t joking when they said it was freezing at base camp. Think -7 degrees with wind chill factor making it feel like -15. It was really cloudy when we got there first but the clouds began to clear and rewarded us with an amazing view for Fuego erupting every 30 mins.

The sleeping arrangements were two to a tent with sleeping mats on the floor and a warm sleeping bag. I was surprisingly really warm at night. I’m not a good camper, I realised this along time ago and don’t sleep well on the floor but as sleeping bags went, it was quite comfortable.

We had a group dinner around a camp fire. It was cold and windy so best way to keep warm was to huddle around the fire. The food was amazing,we had beans, toastados and a vegetable noodle stir fry followed by hot chocolate.

Everyone went to bed fairly early as we had a 4.30am start to get to the summit for sunrise. Where Soy Tour’s base camp is gives a fantastic view of Fuego and its closer then other companies basecamps and its only a gruelling 45 minutes hike (sometimes crawling) to the summit. During the night you could see Fuego erupting spitting hot lava, it was incredible to see and be so close to an active volcano.

The next morning we got up at 4.30 and left to make our way to the summit. It was raining, cloudy and winds of 100 km per hour. I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold in my life when I was sitting at the summit, back to the wind rocking myself back and forth wondering if this is how people get frost bite. We waited for the sun to rise, we didn’t see anything but at least there was some light and after a futile hour and a half between hiking and waiting, we started to descend.

This was actually quite fun running down the volcano, despite me not being able to feel my hands or toes. We were the only group to summit, some other groups had the good sense not to summit due to safety concerns and the conditions. I’m glad I went up to say I finished it.

We were just so unlucky with the weather. I’ve stolen some pictures from a friend who did it the following week and the views are incredible and they seemed to have a splendid old time on Acatenango. If you get a good day for it, I really don’t think there is a more beautiful sunrise.

At basecamp we had breakfast which consisted of pancakes, porridge, banana and hot chocolate. They did really well with the food considering it was prepared on the side of a volcano. It took about 2 and a half hours to get down to the road from basecamp. We all basically ran down to warm up. We were all dreaming of hot showers and getting laundry done back in Antigua.

Overall Im really glad I did it and really it was just unfortunate we didn’t get a better day for it. It was a tough hike so be prepared to be seriously out of breath and have sore legs the next day.

Tips for climbing Acatenango:

1. Bring lots of layers. A second pair of underwear and clothes in case you get wet.
2. Take two coats from the tour company.
3. Rent a walking pole.
4. Bring plenty of water and altitude sickness tablets.
5. Take some snacks with sugar.
6. Check the weather before you book.
7. Bring a sleeping bag liner.
8. Put everything to the laundry as soon as you get back to Antigua, some places will wash your shoes as well. You don’t need hiking boots for the hike, probably better but normal trainers will do.